From One World To Another
by sctwilightvampwolfgal
Summary: Inevitably soulmates found each other, worlds collided, and everything changed with just a simple word or one heart to heart. *Oneshot collection for AU Yeah August on Tumblr.*
1. Soulmate

'Like glittering emeralds encased in sunlight, shining pearls.' She stopped, pencil stilling even before her mind starting wandering. Marinette sighed as if it was just a glimpse, just something a little more than the ordinary.

'Mom, how do you know when you have a soulmate sign moment?' She'd stared wide eyed up at her mother years ago.

'Oh, honey, you just know.' Sabine had smiled, 'Don't worry too much about it, because sometimes it only makes sense when you've met him.' She'd shrugged, and Marinette smiled at the old apron that her mother still wore after all these years, decorated with a piece of bread, and the word, Patisserie. Her mother called it one of her clearest signs and wore it almost every day even now.

Marinette traced those words that felt like whispered poetry, elegant, but yet still a mystery. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine him and yet in all of her almost thirteen years he hadn't gotten any clearer to imagine even with the poetry on the page where she was supposed to be designing something to wear for herself.

* * *

"So," Alya grinned that wide grin of hers that within the few months that they'd came to know each other always spelled trouble, "You like fashion, right?" She held a 'Gabriel' magazine out as if it were a lifeline.

Marinette stared at the magazine, feeling as if it couldn't be all that great if Alya was carefully holding it away from her, "I do." She liked fashion from watching celebrities wear such beautiful clothes to looking up fashion designers, and yet Marinette had never settled on one that she liked more than the other, because every dress was a new design, a glimpse at the artist, and a sign of the woman wearing it.

She'd rarely looked much at men's fashion, other than half hearted scribbles meant for her soulmate, and that none of them looked at all perfect for him. Her mother told her to wait, and then she'd know when she met him. Marinette just wanted to get started on it sooner than later, so that she'd already be mostly ready by the time that he arrived in her life.

"Here's a gift. I saw it and thought of you." Alya finally handed the magazine over, and Marinette paused as she locked eyes on bright emeralds or rather the eyes of the model on the front. He looked roughly around her age and somehow his clothes made him seem almost elegant, other wordly, and she smiled at just the sight of him.

It really shouldn't be much, but her belly got the excited butterflies in it that sometimes buzzed when she found an outfit or a dress that inspired her. "Who's he?"

"The model or the designer?" Alya teased, and Marinette wondered if there was a reason that Alya had switched from being homeschooled to going to Marinette's school a year earlier than she was going to.

"The model?" Marinette tried, "Both?" If the rest of the magazine looked just as grand as that first design had then she definitely wanted to know who they both were.

"The model's Adrien Agreste." Alya shrugged, "And the fashion designer is his father, Gabriel Agreste."

"Oh, his father is?" Marinette was already looking through the pages of the magazine, seeing Adrien splashed across the pages, and a woman that looked a lot like him. Suddenly, it just felt a little different to flip through the magazine though not enough to make her really think it through.

"Yeah." Alya shrugged, "I just saw that magazine. I don't know much more than what Chloe might have said or what the cover of the magazine says."

Marinette smiled, "I'd like to meet them one day." That was all that was said on that, and Marinette didn't even pause to think on it for another day longer.

* * *

Adrien thinks of when his parents first told him about soulmates and how most people had them, but not all. 'You get signs that will slowly lead you into the right direction.' His mother had smiled as she went on to tell him about how lost, she'd get in a sea of strangers and how she'd stopped looking at the face for a while to see the dresses and the suits.

Emilie had laughed as she'd told him how she used to paint dresses, one she'd seen, and yet she never designed a single one. 'I'd get this dream all the time though that I'd be talking to someone that I couldn't see, and he'd walk me through designing a dress for me, and I'd never paused to think on it as more than weird.'

'Why did you have the same dream so much, Mom?' Adrien had asked her once.

'Well, I think it was a sign that I'd meet your father and fall in love with him.' Emilie smiled, 'He's a designer and once I knew that, it made it all make sense, but I used to look for that dress everywhere, and I never found it, but your dad, he made it for me shortly after we met.'

Adrien had always thought of soulmates as so unreal, almost fantasy like despite all of that, and he'd ask his mother so much if any of his dreams sounded like 'soulmate dreams' though not all signs came in quite the same way. He'd only really felt like may be he didn't have a soulmate when he realized that his great aunt on his mother's side had never had one, but when he'd turned five, she'd stunned him with a gift that she bought him.

'Auntie, Auntie.' He'd cheered, because whenever she visited, she usually brought either really fun stuff to do or came up with the most fascinating stories ever.

'Adrien, dear.' She'd smiled, and somehow through her fading blond hair and her wise green eyes, he found himself relaxing, 'I bought you a birthday gift.'

Sadly, when Adrien had opened up the gift, he found something less 'exotic' and less 'cool,' just a little sewing kit like the one that Chloe had begged for a few months ago when she got it in her head that she was destined to be a fashion designer before she complained so much about making her thumb bleed that she just stopped.

'Why?' Adrien had asked, trying to figure out if she was trying to tell him like the people that worked with his dad that one day, he'd follow in Gabriel's footsteps. He couldn't figure out why his auntie would tell him that when people liked to call her a 'spinster' and complain since she'd never followed the path that others would have expected her to.

'Keep it for your soulmate, Adrien.' His auntie had smiled, 'She'll like it.'

Adrien had just decided that may be a lot of girls liked sewing kits or may be he'd just never met her yet, because Chloe hated to sew, and Adrien didn't know many girls. He'd hold it like a lifeline as one of the only signs that he did have a soulmate until one day, he'd grown less interested in it and wondered if really his aunt was as crazy as a lot of people said that she was since she'd never met her soulmate or married anyone. She had no kids, and yet she spoke like she knew something about people's soulmates though Adrien wouldn't say a word about it to her.

He'd always looked forward to her visits as a kid whether she'd just returned from travelling or whether she was just stopping by. Adrien just wasn't sure how much he actually believed her.

* * *

As an umbrella was opened up above her head, Marinette saw something that she'd never pieced together before as she glanced up at bright emeralds encased in sunlight as what remained of the bright sun was all in the boy beside her as he apologized for something that he hadn't done.

It truly broke what remained in disbelief inside her when she head him laugh when the umbrella clamped up around her, because that was pure sunshine to her ears. Suddenly, little things made sense: why it took so long to discover her favorite fashion designer, why she'd been stunned short at seeing a picture of Adrien on a Gabriel magazine, why her designs for her future soulmate were inspired off of this model, and why she had written those words down in her notebook.

Marinette was positive that there were probably many signs that she'd overlooked, but in this moment, she didn't care about a single one of them as she'd found someone that she thought that she knew a little from her love of Ultimate Mecha Strike Three to her craving of anime which she hadn't really been super into before, to even trying to hold her tongue when Chloe said something stupid yet again.

Everything made sense as she looked into bright green eyes that were like emeralds straight to her heart, and she knew that everything would be okay as they put all of their confusing, jumbled up pieces of themselves together and truly learned to see every sign in both of their lives that were pointing them to these steps and standing side by side.

When Adrien blinked up at her after they'd stopped laughing, looking a little confused by the look on her face, she felt somewhat emboldened to tell him though not by much, "I-I think you're my soulmate." Her words felt too soft, too small, too insecure, and yet he heard them, and somehow a smile grew on his face where there wasn't one before.

"Do you sew?" Was the first thing out of his mouth, and Marinette laughed as she nodded. Adrien's arms were around her in a second as he worked up the nerve to ask another question, "Do you like Ultimate Mecha Strike?"

He didn't name which game of the three currently out, but Marinette couldn't help it as she answered, "I used to play the first one with my dad all the time when I was younger, and I love the third one that just came out." She wondered if that sounded nerdy, and yet that worry didn't matter as Adrien just held her closer.

"I found you." Adrien was breathless, and Marinette couldn't help but try to hug him a little tighter and just let the moment roll on.

"I found you too." Marinette felt like crying, "I should have known when Alya had given me that magazine a year ago, because you look like the words that I wrote down once, and you became my inspiration for the designs that I draw for my soulmate." She was just as breathless as every word tumbled out, but everything made so much sense especially how her mom had said it all.

Marinette had finally found her soulmate, and he'd found her.


	2. College

It felt like a wonderful thing to be here and yet he was absolutely positive that he shouldn't be this stressed over all of this as he held a paintbrush in his hands and stared hard down at the canvas before him as he tried to paint something incredible. Nathanael wasn't the sort to ever let anything tear him down, not again, not after all these years of building up a wall and some understanding.

He was here, because there was something that you could learn in a classroom, something that can make you better, new strategies, new styles, and yet even though it's only the start of his second year, he wants to just stop, not stop going to school, but everything felt like it had caught up on him.

Last year was new and exciting, trying to learn a few new styles, taking the basic classes and whatever else was required, and here he was, hating his art class. It was stupid really or at least felt like that when he'd absolutely adored his art class last year that had taught him a little of different styles, and he'd had a fun teacher though his teacher had been a little on the weird side, but he'd been there, and he'd been awesome as far as teaching went.

"What are you going to paint?" Marcel whispered in his ear, and he glanced down at the enthusiastic Freshman, who looked just so excited to be in this class, and who despite her sometimes fiery teacher still managed to remain passionate.

"I'm not sure yet. I might take one of my old projects and paint a new version of it or I could try something new. What does the professor like?" Nathanael dreaded this new set of projects that happened to be very vague and yet kind of extensive and not really, depending on which artist you asked. It wasn't really learning anything new, just testing your patience with the class, and he hated that. Nathanael was here to learn and to grow, not to feel like a sitting duck and just wonder.

"I don't know." Marcel giggled, "You can't please her and trying is no fun." Nathanael was really grateful for this girl; she'd been in one of his science classes before, and they'd instantly gotten along once they actually started talking to each other outside of class. They could talk for hours, and Nathanael was glad to have a friend like her, someone that was so straightforward and honest with him.

"What are you going to paint?" Nathanael glanced over at Marcel's canvas which had her name signed in dark blue on the upper left corner and a small circle done in black so far.

"Just some 'characters' I like to draw." Marcel was a bit of a mix of many things, and one of which was a beginning writer though she rarely wrote and preferred to draw. She'd draw all day if anyone let her though she liked to complain sometimes of not really being inspired.

"Oh?" Nathanael asked, "Did you write their story yet?"

"No, not yet. I don't know how well this writing thing is going, but I'd like to just once." She smiled as she brushed her black hair back and picked back up a paintbrush, "I don't think the professor likes my Chibis. They're not realistic enough." She huffed, and Nathanael had the irrational urge to chuckle, not at her, just at how she kind of handled it.

"I don't think she likes my art either." Nathanael shrugged as he finally decided to just paint a rendition of one of his old superhero drawings.

"Nonsense." Marcel shot him a look, "It's great. You can improve, but it's already so unique and so you." She smiled.

"Thank you, Marcie." He replied.

"It's not a problem." She waved it away. Marcel had beautiful black hair that fell long down her back.

It was weird how at college or university, you could meet people that were already changing your life, great friends met with next to no problem; it was its own kind of culture, one that Nathanael was already starting to fall in love with. Other than the occasional not so great professor, he'd had amazing classes or at least decently interesting ones.

* * *

"Your painting was great." Marcel smiled, "You could touch up a few points of it, but I don't think it needed the kind of attack that it got." She sighed as she pressed closer, "Mine's nowhere near as 'inspired' as yours is."

"Marcel, yours is cute." Nathanael argued though he barely felt like doing so as he could just see every line that was a little wobbly or every butchered gleam in Queen Bee's eyes or just how his black accidentally smudged with some gold at the bottom of the painting.

"No, mine isn't nearly as emotional as yours." Marcel looked a little lost in thought as she turned her gaze back to Nathanael, "Just looking into your heroine's eyes made me feel the call to join her and yet made me admire her even more."

"Emotional? Are you sure, Marcel? It was just a simple painting version of one of my old drawings." Nathanael couldn't help but doubt that it was really all that great, because he should have been careful to avoid smudging and just take better care of his lines though he'd always been more of a comic artist than a painter. It didn't matter in that way, because he really, really wanted to be a great artist, and you could even learn from mediums that you don't usually create stuff for.

"I could really see her determination." Marcel smiled, "Even though one of the eyes was a little off."

"Is this the whole friends share a similar perspective and must defend the other moment?" Nathanael asked, because while he wanted to believe her, he saw the flaws that his professor had been determined to point out and the same flaws that the rest of the class was quick to speak of.

"Not at all. I'd tell you the truth anyway. We're here to grow, right? With every piece of art and every project, we grow, and we get the chance to better ourselves for our futures." She told him, and he could see exactly what she meant.

"Just, it's hard to believe when I'd worked so hard for this class and nothing seemed to work." This class felt like a dead end, a black hole; it sucked up all of his effort, all of his hard work, and all of his motivation, eating away at his inspiration and confidence.

"It feels like that, but if you really don't like your painting, just keep on painting as much as you can until you get better." Marcel paused, "It's what I do. I want to be more like you."

"Just be you, Marcel." College was full of the little moments, ups and downs, challenges, obstacles, joys, successes, and failures, but he knew that somehow with friends like Marcel and Marc and a few others that he'd met or still had in his life that he'd get through the hard times and look towards the good times.

Nathanael just doubted that he wouldn't be scared and nervous for his next art class that he'd signed up for for next semester. It could just go as bad or it could be like his first one. He'd never know until he tried, but he'd work to get past whatever the next class brought along.

In the mean time, he'll try to paint or draw everyday and grow, so that he wouldn't ever have to feel as broken and defeated by another art class again. Motivation can slowly come back and so can confidence when you really worked at it.


	3. Single Parent

"Daddy? What was Mommy like?" Adri asked as she stared at the canvas that her father had set up for her in the kitchen and that he'd just helped mix her paints and set them out for her.

"When I first met her?" Nathanael smiled, "She had a fiery personality, the kind of woman that knew what she wanted, and wasn't afraid to reach for it, but over the years as we got closer, she got a little sweeter."

"Sweeter?" Adri asked, wide blue eyes looking so, so curious.

"Yeah, she became the kind of woman that I fell for, and the kind of woman that you'd be so amazed with. She, just, grew into someone still just as brave and determined, but just a little kinder, a little happier with the little moments." He shrugged, and as he carefully painted a circle on his canvas, his daughter looked on with joy in her eyes.

"So she was great?" Adri smiled, "Why aren't you together, like Aunt Mari and Uncle Adrien? Or Auntie Alya and Uncle Nino? Or..?" She looked just a little bit lost as her mind ran away from her as if those were the only couples that she could think of.

"Sometimes the best intentions don't always work out." Nathanael sighed as he remembered those ugly fights from right before they fell apart, the words that cut deeper than a knife ever could into his heart, and he remembered realizing for the first time ever that may be Chloe hadn't ever loved him like he had her.

"Intentions?" She stared up at him, and he could have swore that he saw Chloe in her, and not the Chloe of today that carried a sort of guilt around with her whenever she dropped her daughter off for a visit after having her for a little while, not the hunched over, kind of worn out look that her mom wore whenever she came around here as if Nathanael really did bring out the worst in her. It was never the side of her that the tabloids caught, and never the side of her that Marc said that he'd noticed if he saw her in public.

Chloe could make happiness look radiant and sadness look ragged. Nathanael wouldn't mention that, not even when he found himself painting her when she was younger and excited about life, looking forward to carving her own future out beyond being just the mayor's daughter or the way that he sometimes painted her as sad as she looked around him.

"It's like ideas that you really, really want to happen." Nathanael explained, "Like when you really want to hang out with a friend, and you're excited about it, but sometimes those ideas don't happen like you think they will. Say, your friend gets grounded or their parents have a business trip last minute."

"Oh." Adri murmured, "So your best intentions were to be with Mommy?" She leaned closer, and Nathanael smiled down at her.

"Yeah, but they got away from us." Nathanael really did miss being by Chloe's side and though they'd never made it official or actually managed to stay together for anywhere near as long as he wished they had, he still considered Adri one of the best parts about that even though every now and again he remembered what being with Chloe had been like.

She'd just sort of walked out, and they hadn't ever really talked about it. There was no cheating, no being intentionally cruel to each other, and though some harsh words had been spoken and arguments had happened more often around that time, it wasn't nearly enough for them to split up and yet she'd left.

Nathanael just wished that they hadn't became a statistic, a split home, or that he had another moment to truly recapture the past or at the very least, force his heart to move on. There was only so much that he could do about it though when he saw hunched shoulders or when he saw his daughter's curiosity for a life that she'd been far too young to remember.

"Did you love her?" Adri looked nervous as if the words were probably the worst words that she could have spoken in her life.

"Yeah, I did." Nathanael couldn't help but look away, turn his circle into the beginnings of a face, "I still do."

Adri stilled as if that made next to no sense to her, like she was taught that this was all smooth sailing, and Nathanael wondered if he'd said too much and had broken that illusion clean in half. If he'd had some sort of sign of why they'd just split up, and had managed to pick up the lost pieces of his heart, then may be he wouldn't feel nearly as lost and broken apart over it as he did now.

It wasn't like he still woke up everyday and felt that ache in his chest of missing her, missing Chloe, or longing to be just a normal family once more. Nathanael didn't think about it everyday, but sometimes it struck him out of the blue, and it felt like he'd be stuck hurting for hours, paralyzed by missing what he couldn't have again.

Nathanael sometimes remembered when he made himself a coffee in the morning or when he fell asleep late after drawing or painting or sketching most of the night that Chloe should be there, that she'd be up late working on paperwork for her job, or she'd be up in the morning wondering how come his coffee always tasted better than hers.

He'd tell her that it didn't. Sometimes she'd feel so worn out that she'd cling to him when he had to be up for something or another or when Adri cried in the morning, and the night before had left them up more than half the night taking care of her. It was the little moments, and while not too often or all the time, he still missed her more than he felt like he should.

Chloe had came to mean way more to him over the years than he'd ever have expected from her, and yet balancing how often they saw Adri and not saying more to each other than when the other got Adri or if she was there or an occasional 'hello' changed a lot and left him feeling like he'd somehow gotten the worst end of the stick even though he knew that Chloe had to balance the same kinds of things. May be she didn't miss him like he missed her.

"Is love like that?" Adri looked lost, "Is that why my aunts and uncles are still together?"

"When you truly love someone, Adri, it doesn't stop even when it would be easier if it did." Nathanael never really liked the idea of lying to his daughter though he usually could avoid baring his whole heart to his daughter.

"Oh, okay." She murmured.

"I love you, Adri." Nathanael murmured, making sure that she heard it, and hopefully knew that he meant it.

"Like you love Mommy, and like my aunts and uncles love each other?" Adri looked up at him as if she just had to make sure.

"Yeah, but it's special to you." Nathanael smiled, "I love you forever, and yet I also love you as Adri, so it's a little different than my love for your mother."

"Okay. You love Mommy as Mommy and me as me? I love you forever, Daddy, as you." Adri smiled so wide that Nathanael's heart warmed just at the sight of that wide smile on his little girl's face.

"I love you too." Nathanael muttered, "Do you need a little help with that butterfly wing?"

"Yep." Adri kept on smiling as her father guided her through fixing up the butterfly wing and making it look so pretty. She could just imagine it beginning to fly away, but her daddy was always good at stuff like this. Adri couldn't wait to show her mommy when she went back to Mommy's hotel suite!


	4. Enemy

She wasn't one for enemies, and yet that's what she called the man that was currently leading the fashion industry, having taken it over by storm. Marinette glared down at the magazine proudly proclaiming another Gabriel Agreste Original. 'How marvelous!' It read, and she wondered if that man ever got any sleep from slaving away all day to make 'halfway decent' designs, because she wouldn't call them good when he'd just dropped her off in second place.

He might as well be a supervillain in Marinette's eyes as she turned her gaze back to a half finished dress, leaning against fabric that in Marinette's eyes looked uninspired as she painstakingly took it apart again to give it another try and fix it up way better than it currently looked. "Miss Ladybug?" A new employee called out, and Marinette smiled the brightest smile that she could smile at her, false as it felt.

"Yes?" She may be Marinette Dupain-Cheng, but some rumors had flown when she'd first entered the fashion industry since her trademark was a ladybug. Gabriel Agreste's was a butterfly, and Marinette Dupain-Cheng was a ladybug. Since she was younger, she'd been given the nickname 'Miss Ladybug' as few had dared until recently to call Gabriel 'Mr. Butterfly.'

Marinette considered him just 'butterfly,' or 'papillion,' because surely he hadn't earned that 'Mister.' She credited his fame to his very attractive wife and son when she was feeling particularly bitter, but Marinette never said so much as a word of this, not when sometimes she even found herself inspired off of his designs. She'd claim neutrality at the least anyway.

Miss Ladybug was not born a quitter, nor would she leave Gabriel with a helping hand up.

"We're behind on a few of the lines." The woman looked scared out of her wits even though everyone knew that Marinette treated her staff much more kindly than Gabriel did his. Other than that one interview where Gabriel Agreste told everyone that Marinette handed out suckers to all of her employees to make them want to work for her and overlook the actual pressure of the fashion industry. The fact that he'd said it all with poise and grace, and without batting an eyelash had left her irritated for weeks especially when her best friend teased her, 'Can I start getting lollipops too?'

That rumor as well as the rumor that Marinette was befriending reporters to get positive press coverage and become famous were among the worst. Marinette didn't even feel like spending another day wondering about why media seemed content to trash talk her.

Alya just told her that since she was the newest and hottest fashion designer rising through the ranks and actually giving Gabriel Agreste a run for his money that that was why everyone felt the dire need to talk so heavily about Marinette.

She'd try to take her word for it as she went to her secretary and asked her when Gabriel Agreste's next fashion show was, and if they could book a spot right next to it. Marinette would rise up through hard work and careful planning, and there was nothing that Gabriel Agreste could do to ruin this competition of theirs though he'd always seemed to pride himself on being the best during difficult situations for his business.

* * *

Marinette often found time to work with her fashion designers and staff personally, to try to figure out just how to make the best possible designs and schedule the best possible photo shoots and fashion shows. She found that the staff worked better when they weren't constantly scared of being under attack or fired, just as long as they didn't start to get lazy.

She'd rose to fame when people heard that she wasn't just a fashion designer, but had actually designed an album cover and a few pairs of sunglasses for Jagged Stone. Marinette didn't doubt that that was the spark that lit the flame and had many people flock to her designs, because she wasn't afraid of the edgier designs nor was she afraid of the more light and cute designs or even the formal. There wasn't much that could scare Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and launching a new line of casual wear when Gabriel Agreste was ahead of her in popularity didn't make her worry at all.

Marinette trusted her designs, and she had the strong desire and passion that all of Paris would be wearing her clothes or at least a large chunk of it, so she'd set out to design clothes that she would have loved when she was younger and through Alya's sisters and Nino's younger brother among Manon who she used to babysit and through even a few of her employee's children or siblings, she set out to design clothes that teenagers and other youth would wear.

She knew that they'd sell especially when some of their prices were practically steals for an eager fashion focused Parisian since 'Marinette Originals' were not sold on an easily affordable, middle class budget.

When Gabriel's fashion show was full of fans of Marinette's designs, he wouldn't know what hit him.

* * *

Marinette knew what she was doing, and that's what made her a fierce competitor for Gabriel Agreste and his fashion empire. It's what encouraged her to make high risk gambles, and still come out on top of the polls.

She was not afraid to push the envelope, to change the world, and she wasn't afraid of Gabriel Agreste. It was just that none of this was at all what she expected.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng had expected to give Gabriel Agreste some competition, had worked hard to succeed, and out of a love of the clothes that she designed, but she'd never expected the soft, accidental moments that could very well mark the end of her career if found out or at least drop her popularity down some.

Gabriel Agreste was her enemy, her competition, and the one that she'd continue to push herself and her company to rise above and had been doing a good job at that, but his son, his son was everything that she wasn't supposed to want.

Adrien Agreste wasn't the sort of man that she was supposed to fall for, and already, he'd be considered a black sheep or a black cat as he'd probably prefer by the fashion world, especially more so when you realized just how smitten he was with his father's rival fashion designer.

He wasn't going to follow in his father's shoes with wonderful designs; he was just the model. Marinette had met him by accident, and they'd never expected to fall so head over heels in love with each other even though they should consider each other enemies as well.

The son of your enemy, of the man running a company that you're in a fierce competition with, is not supposed to be your boyfriend. Though if the media ever caught wind of it, they'd think that he was a spy for either company. Marinette knew that he wasn't, and against all odds, she trusted him.

He was her enemy, but he rapidly was stealing her heart and not the competition that he was supposed to steal. Marinette couldn't be more nervous about the media fallout that just may happen or just what could happen due to this, 'Romeo And Juliet' of companies, but she also couldn't help but fall in love with him. He was everything that she'd ever wanted in a person, in a boyfriend.

She was lost to his gentlemanly grace to the rebelliousness that still sometimes flickered in those green eyes of his to his sweet side to his dorky side and to just everything that he was. It didn't hurt his case at all that she was positive that in his own way, he was the most attractive man that she'd perhaps ever met.

Marinette was screwed over by this competition that she'd thrived under, and yet she never wanted to let that go nor did she ever want to do anything to cripple this budding relationship that still left her head spinning and her heart soaring.


	5. Laundromat

It would have been fine on a better budget, but now, Marinette found herself walking towards the laundromat for the first time since the many trips that she and Alya used to make here when they were in college. They just couldn't afford to buy a new washer.

Marinette sighed as she entered the place that didn't look any more cleaned up since the last time that she'd entered with some machines still flickering on and off, jammed most likely from easily riled up customers that were convinced that they were being screwed out of a good deal or that the laundry really should be cleaner than they feel like it is.

She couldn't help her surprise though when she saw some faces that she hadn't seen in years, not since they first parted to head off to college or wherever to chase their dreams or follow in their parents' footsteps, namely she saw Nino and Adrien for the first time in years.

"Hi." She smiled as she carefully sorted out her and Alya's laundry and started up a washer with them and some change that they'd scrounged up for laundry until they finally found the money at their jobs to buy a new washer.

"Marinette?" By how wide Adrien's eyes had gotten, he either could barely recognize her or he'd been shocked by how casually she'd greeted them. She'd grown up and while Alya still teased her as if they were both back in lycee, neither of them actually felt like they were most of the time. Occasionally, they managed to slip into fun antics that reminded them of when they were younger.

Sharing an apartment had just become a constant for them since they'd started up at close colleges, and then became more of a habit by the time that they'd graduated that neither felt particularly ready to stop.

"Yeah." She smiled, "Our washer broke." Marinette shrugged, and while it was an inconvienance to have a broken washer, she didn't mind nearly as much just to see familiar faces.

"Our?" Adrien and Nino repeated at once, and though they were both looking for a ring on her finger, she knew that they wouldn't find one.

"Alya and I are living together for a little while. We've been since university, and neither of us felt like moving any time since." It hadn't been too long since they graduated and yet those couple of years felt like an eternity in a way. Marinette wasn't sure why every big turning point in her life had to feel as if it stretched out far longer than it actually did though she didn't mind nearly as much anyway.

"Oh." Nino muttered, "Adrien and I are staying together until my DJing and film careers make enough for me to get my own place or for Adrien's job to get more settled in since his father's business has gone stale for a little while."

It took Marinette a second longer than she really felt like it should have to remember that his father's business had become inactive since Hawkmoth's defeat since the literal owner of the fashion business was revealed to be a supervillain with questionable taste in fashion and Adrien had never been a designer like his father was.

"Oh." It was one of the reasons why Marinette was so glad to see them both again since not only hadn't she seen Cat Noir since Hawkmoth was defeated and revealed to them for who he was, but she hadn't seen Adrien in that same amount of time or had any contact with him.

It made her happy that at least one of his friends had managed to stay in touch past that time in the way that she'd failed at, and she hadn't seen Nino in a while either, not since he and Alya broke up from 'busyness' or rather Alya thought may be it would help to be apart for a while, and they'd slowly lost contact.

Marinette still had no idea why Alya had broken up with Nino when the two used to be so close and when Alya hadn't really moved on anyway. She still had feelings for Nino no matter how much she tried to hide them from her best friend or from anybody. Marinette still hadn't gotten the story out of her best friend and roommate even though Alya and Nino really had broken up a while ago.

"How's everything going with Alya?" Nino asked, and something in the nervous way he asked her made Marinette's heart ache for them, for the two of them who both probably hurt to get back together once again.

"She thinks that she might have found a big break with journalism. Alya wants something other than the LadyBlog to kickstart her career since Ladybug and Cat Noir are no longer active." Marinette shrugged as she smiled over at her two old friends.

"That makes sense." Nino smiled back at her, "She loved that old blog and worked so hard for it."  
"It could have wore her out and yet she never did quit working hard for it, and I think that really made her a better journalist or reporter." Marinette had to admit. Alya's hard work ethic was really one to aspire to though her best friend did worry that Alya'd end up as a workaholic in the future, given that her career took off like Marinette figured that it would.

Alya had worked so hard over the years, still often pushed herself, loved what she did, and had the passion and drive for it. She was so enthusiastic and hard working with unique ideas and a lot of experience, mostly from the LadyBlog. Marinette knew that Alya's career would soar off sooner rather than later.

"It did." Adrien smiled, "Where do you think that Cat Noir and Ladybug went to?"

"Probably back to their civilian lives like Rena Rouge, Queen Bee, and Carapace probably did." Marinette shrugged though she could attest to two of those people definitely going back to their usually less complicated civilian lives: Ladybug and Rena Rouge.

"Probably." Nino agreed though he was giving his best friend a questioning look, probably from the pretty quick change of topic. "Are you in charge of the laundry out of the two of you, Marinette?"

"No, not really." Marinette admitted, "I'm just the pickier one out of the two of us most of the time though Alya was busy today, so I headed over alone." It's not too bad in the evening to make the slow walk to this old place even when Alya was caught up in another project, researching as much as she possibly could and working super hard on her next project.

Alya loved being out on the scene, so Marinette hoped that her friend could switch to a job with less paper writing and more on the scene action for her friend's sake. She'd probably like it much more though Alya didn't mind the research or the writing of projects like the one that she was currenly working on.

"That makes sense." Adrien admitted, "Nino's showing me how to do our laundry here." He looked kind of bummed to admit that, and Marinette could easily see why. He had to be trying to leave behind his father's influence and truly branch out by himself, and every little bit of help made the road a little easier and the transition smoother.

His determination and honesty reminded her so much of why her crush on him had lasted so long, and if Marinette's feelings for him were still there, she'd grown used to not noticing them. She really hoped that that wasn't a situation that Nino or Alya had gotten themselves into after all of this time though she wasn't sure if you could once you dated the person that you had feelings for.

You'd have the memories and the occasional, wandering thought of the past or of what ifs or whatever else to deal with from then. Marinette barely had what ifs, so she figured that she got out a little more unscathed than most when they thought back to when they first discovered falling for someone like that.

She wasn't entirely sure if she loved him back then, not like she was sure that she'd came to love Cat Noir which she was kind of sad that she had never managed to say the words to him. It certainly would have made life a lot easier and stopped leaving her just guessing and wondering where he was at.

Where she lacked any major what ifs about Adrien and her, she certainly didn't lack any about Cat Noir and her, Ladybug or Marinette. Ladybug missed her partner desperately, and in a way, it rivaled how much Marinette missed her superhero friend. Really, there shouldn't be any difference there, and there wasn't much of one anyway.

Just sometimes it was easier to realize how precious her partner had been when they were both in the suits and sometimes it was much easier when only he was in the suit. She missed his selfless heart, his need to protect her, she missed his friendship, and she even missed his puns and the flirting.

Cat Noir had become so much to her, and being without him for so long felt so unnatural, and yet Marinette didn't have the words to say a single thing in regards to that, not outloud anyway.

"I'm sure that you're both doing great." Marinette could try her hardest to be upbeat, and she'd manage though the old thoughts of her memories of Cat Noir didn't easily fade.

"Thanks." Adrien's answering smile was so wide and so sweet that Marinette felt a little bit of relief in all of this, and though she hadn't expected it, the three of them managed to exchange numbers before Nino and Adrien headed off to the apartment that they both called home for now.

Whether it was a chance for a new beginning or the rekindling of something old, Marinette was definitely looking forward to seeing more of the two of them again and getting to talk to them much more often than she had in a while. She missed her old school friends desperately, and if all it took was her and Alya's washer breaking down to see them again, she hoped that it happened far more often than it did.


	6. Hogwarts

**A special thanks to my younger sister, Pumpkin Patch of Candy Canes, who knows way more about Hogwarts than me and helped me figure out key details like which house each character should go in, including some that I didn't write into the story, and who willingly proofread every bit of my story to doublecheck my Harry Potter knowhow and whatever else I may have messed up. She's awesome, and honestly was a major lifesaver for today.**

The day when you were to be sorted into your house at Hogwarts felt like a distant dream come true, and Alya knew that she might have been a little too abuzz about it. Just, could you imagine? Hufflepuffs for loyalty and a kind heart though sometimes Alya felt like she had to be too rash for that.

Slytherin for practical jokes and sly natures, and yet Alya hadn't played nearly enough practical jokes in her lifetime to feel like one, so she bet that couldn't be it. But, Alya didn't consider herself to have a bad sense of humor at all.

Ravenclaw for being intelligent, and yet Alya had never fancied herself a nerd though she felt the complete desire to research and learn as much as she could. She'd spent years researching Hogwarts and every fact of the school that she could find from propaganda and sheer truth that stunned her silly. She loved research and loved to learn within reason; there were still topics that left her a little too bored out of her mind to be of interest.

Gryffindors were known for being brave nearly to the point of being reckless, and while Alya could see that in herself, she doubted that she was a Gryffindor. She had a tendency to both react impulsively and to overthink herself into oblivion.

She'd been practicing magic since she was three though, and when she wasn't practicing, she and Nino, her next door neighbor and wizard-to-be, were always playing around with it though while she got a little more curious and sure that she could find new ways of magic somehow. Nino grew a little less likely to play so much. He'd started taking it much more seriously.

Alya would insist for as long as you could take it that Nino and her would have the same house in Hogwarts that they'd be roommates or neighbors and goof off together and study magic even in the dead of night. Nino was her best friend, and someone that she trusted way more than anyone and yet it wasn't the way that it would end up.

* * *

The Sorting Hat had to be wrong! 'I'm not a Ravenclaw if Nino is a Hufflepuff.' It felt a lot like defeat watching as Nino got sorted into another house, dashing Alya's dreams of being neighbors and yet time had a funny way of changing that too.

For now though she'd grin and bear it and try to put up with the fact that her childhood friend was being separated from each other. They wouldn't be able to eat lunch together or find time to talk or play together anymore, will they?

Alya felt alone and yet when she looked up, there was a kind boy around her age, holding what looked like a spellbound robot in his hands, just out of sight from Hagrid. "Hi." Alya waved semi-nervously since she figured that she might as well come to know another Ravenclaw around her age.

"Hello, I'm Max." He greeted her softly, and Alya wondered if she had to be sorted into the wrong house since he was a lot more soft spoken than she was.

"I'm Alya." She greeted back.

* * *

Little did Alya know that it wouldn't be that different to be in a different house than Nino as she found that their study sessions and long conversations did transfer over despite Nino being a Hufflepuff and Alya being a Ravenclaw.

Over time, Alya and Nino changed in the little ways that weren't always easy to notice. At some point, she started to notice the way that Nino peered down at the book while studying or the glow of magic from his wand shining over his skin or the way his eyes gleamed when he finally got a spell right.

Alya had never expected when she'd get carried away when they spoke about anything from classes to magic to dreams to just anything at all, when she'd stop and stare as if seeing him for the first time ever. Nino had almost always been one of her friends. At first, he was one of her only friends, and over time, he'd managed to become her best friend. Now, she wasn't entirely sure what he was to her.

It was like seeing Nino in a whole new light, and with every new potion and every passing day, he became something a little more to her. Like she'd taken her best friend cake and frosted it with something new and in a completely different direction.

Seeing Nino now left little butterflies fluttering in her stomach that simply did not stop when her messenger owl came by and delivered a letter from Nino. Seventeen years old and yet she still couldn't help her excitement at receiving a simple letter from her best friend or the boy, soon to be man, that was still her best friend even after all this time.

She knew that the letter wasn't anything to gush over or super romantic or anything; it was just a general letter since Nino couldn't come over to visit today since he was busy, a fact that he'd mentioned the night before as well. While they hadn't gotten less close over the years surely, something definitely had changed between them after all this time.

* * *

"So, what do you plan on doing once you graduate?" Alya asked, wondering if she could find the words to say that could change the very foundation of their friendship and turn it in a completely different direction or at least made it awkward for a while if things went more wrong than right.

"We've mentioned it before." Nino shrugged, "But besides that, I don't have any new plans."

"I was hoping that you'd let me into your plans." She hoped that that didn't sound Slytherin in the least as neither of them had ever been a Slytherin, and there was nothing mischievous about what she was about to ask.

"You already are in a lot of them." Nino admitted though Alya was positive that he hadn't quite realized what she meant yet.

"How about all of them?" Alya asked, "I know that we've been friends forever, but I don't feel exactly the way that I did when we were five. It's a bit different now." She smiled, remembering when they were young and carefree and nothing meant more than just being the best of friends through all of this time.

"All of them?" Nino asked her, and Alya wondered if she was too gutsy as she leaned forward and placed a kiss on her best friend's cheek and met his stunned look with her slightly flirty one.

"All of them." She repeated with a slowly growing grin.

"Like." Nino took a deep breath as he finally found the words, "Do you want to be my girlfriend? Is that what you're asking?"

"Yeah, if you'll have me." She smiled up at him though her heart filled up with nerves as if it were desiring to overflow.

"I will. I mean, I'd like you to be my girlfriend too." Nino's face flushed pink, and though they were both wizards at Hogwarts, it was like they were once again younger than that.

Alya couldn't help how her joy bubbled up within her chest as she pressed closer and wrapped her arms around the boy that she'd grown up with and hugged him tight. Time was once again changing for them like it had when they'd gotten their Hogwart's acceptance letters what felt like forever ago.


	7. Famous

Being famous wasn't all that it cracked up to be, especially when it wasn't something admirable or something that made her any money. "Did you see Kubdel's signature on that new building?"  
Alix sighed as she pulled her hood tighter around her head and tried to quietly walk by. Sometimes they were looking for fights if they discovered her as if this was some sort of twisted game, other times they wanted to turn her into the police, and still, other times, they sort of wanted to work with her or ask for tips. Neither option was very fun on a good day.

Alix had grown up with Egyptain enthusiasts as family, and living in the Louvre came with its own perks, among being trained by several artists for years before she just up and decided to do her own thing. She was an athlete first with a passion for all things sports or competition based, and yet somehow, she'd found herself getting caught up in the allure of street art and now, as a full grown woman, that had gotten her fame but at a price.

Not everyone wanted to hug her or give her congratulations, and while that never stopped her from making art, she was in it for the fun of it, those that wanted to hurt her or at the very least stop her, cramped on her style. Alix Kubdel was not one that you'd call a traditional artist, but then again, she'd never felt any particular pressure to be of that sort or in that crowd.  
As far as she was concerned, that crowd was already full. Though with every passing day lately, she was starting to think that this crowd was getting a little cramped as well, and she might need to find a new hobby, something to make the monotone days as of late seem less monotone. Perhaps, that was what had pulled her into it as long as she had a spray can and a place to create her art, she would, and it made it a little less dull when the days felt long or not nearly enough for her.

Alix Kubdel was no saint, and yet she wasn't really one who wanted to create a ruckus and get into messy situations. She was after the fun of it, the thrill, and seeing what she could do and how she could rise up on top. Just, sometimes being on top proved itself to her that that was not where she wanted to be.

* * *

"Alix, may be you should do something with your life." Her older brother, Jalil, told her as if he'd had enough, as if he hadn't told her that exact thing for years, "A lot of your old friends are doing something more than working a dead end job and doing street art and racing on the side." He looked worried and may be a little stressed out. Fame could do that to people, especially when your little sister is famous on the street for her art, and when it really was starting to impact your life as well.

"I'm famous. I can't quit now." Quitting just didn't seem like an option, no matter how bad it got. Alix Kubdel was not born a quitter, and she wouldn't start now.

"You're famous for something that might get you arrested. It's not like you ask for permission before you start spray painting." Jalil sat down, still looking worn out, "We get more people at the museum nowadays asking us if your type of art will be displayed here, and they don't look happy at all when they come by and ask that."

"That's not really my problem." And despite her tough words, Alix felt a little guilty. She used to keep it to that old classroom which honestly was just practice for her art and was a way to cope with difficult situations or shake things up. Alix wasn't the sort for patiently standing around during nothing when she could be moving.

"Alix. At least do something in your life for you." He looked away, "Like try out for the Olympics or join a competitive sports team or even, if you'd like, we could hire you here. Just don't waste your life at a job that you don't like and do street art on the side for free. You'll get in trouble one day."

"It's fine. I'm fine." Alix shrugged; she didn't need to chase after anything else right now. Besides, would any sports team want her when she was already famous for street art? It's not like her job was completely pointless, and it paid a decent bit, not a whole lot, but not next to nothing. She had potential to be promoted anyway and make more money at it.

Alix wasn't a terrible employee by any means though she did know in a way that she could be doing more to avoid monotone. A sports team wouldn't be a half bad idea though she doubted that she was Olympics ready. She'd have to work years at a particular sport and practice daily until she was good enough, but she wasn't necessarily out of practice as far as athletics went either.

"Alix, you have so much more potential than this." Jalil sighed, "You deserve better than a job that you don't really care for and being famous for something that could get you in trouble. You have a chance at greater whether it's in art or sports or something else, and you're a natural born leader." He really wanted to drive home today that though she was famous in street art, she had a chance to be so much more.

"Who wants a street artist on their team?" Alix answered rather glumly even though she really should have held her tongue.

"A team willing to take a risk or a gamble." Jalil told her with a slight smile as if he really was winning this argument of theirs that Alix felt like they had far too often.

"Yeah, but most people don't like risks." She answered her older brother, bitterly.

"You do, and you definitely aren't the only one. Just give it a try. Apply to one for me and work past all of this." Alix wasn't blind to her brother's almost quiet calm as if he'd finally won by pushing sheer trust and belief into her for her future.

"I can't quit street art though. I'm too famous now. They'd expect me to always come back to it." Alix admitted, realizing that it was stupid to stand a little taller and puff out her chest with a sudden surge of confidence. She wasn't a bad street artist by any means, and she wasn't writing rude messages or drawing obscene pictures, and for the most part, people didn't mind too much if she decorated something just a little bit prettier.

"Let a bad habit die or at least do it legally. Don't stick with it, just because of your 'fans.'" Alix wanted to laugh at the kind of bitter way that her older brother said that last word as if fans wasn't the word for them or as if they hadn't yet earned that title.

"I'll see what I can do. You won't shut up about it anyway." Alix took a seat next to her brother, kind of glad that he was the smart one to always remind her of what was right though a little annoyed that he'd became the mother hen in her life that she probably didn't need.

"I hope there's more to it than that." He smiled though, and Alix felt relieved to see that he wasn't holding anything against her. Jalil rarely did though sometimes they fought like cats and dogs or she doubted that he really could forgive her that easily. It wasn't like he raiend forgiveness down on her all the time. Jalil could be just as stubborn if not more so at times.

"May be." Alix tried to relax against her brother's side, "Besides, Jalil, I'm famous." There was still a hint of pride to the words that she may have not needed to emphasize, but not just anyone became famous for their street art. They had to be really good and really work at it.

Fame took a lot of time and a lot of effort, and may be sometimes a bit of good luck. Just some side effects of it felt like all the bad luck in the world, but Alix preferred not to focus on those things since they really did draw her away from the fun of creating something, letting something take root, and take shape and transform even the smallest part of Paris into something new, something a bit greater, and something all her own.

Alix loved that thrill, the high of creating something, the adrenaline when she worried that she'd be caught though she had yet to actually go to jail for it. That could be another reason too as to why she became famous as if there was a myth or a legend about her though her family name probably didn't help to have out in the air and associated with her street art.

People found it interesting, and perhaps talked too much, but Alix wouldn't mind too much normally.

"You're supposed to be famous in the right way." Jalil shoved her playfully as he let their old tension and stress fade away as if he was both the bringer of it and the one to release it.

"Who cares about the normal way to be famous?" Alix challenged, and yet she didn't mind at all when things became more comfortable and serious chatter faded into playful teasing. Jalil would always be her brother, differences and all, through playfulness and seriousness. He had her back and really looked out for her, and she honestly did the same for him.

She couldn't imagine her brother liking street art nearly as much as she did or playing on a sports team, but then again, he'd never been the sort to be drawn to those types of things, and she'd probably worry over him just as much if not more if he started getting caught up in them now.

Alix was growing up and one day, she wouldn't be living in the same place and able to hear advice, suggestions, and warnings from her brother as soon as she came home forever. She'd try to enjoy this before one day, he'd get married, and move out, and she'd eventually find her own place. May be even get married if she found the right person for her too.

She had time to wait and time to learn a little more about herself on the way, time to discover whether street art would always be a major part of her life, or time to discover how something else would slowly take over its old place. Right now, she was famous, and she'd enjoy every last second of that fame even as she followed through with her promises to her older brother.


	8. Kwami Swap

Sometimes when you set your eye on a Miraculous, you didn't get the one you wanted, but what would have been Mayura or La Paon as she hadn't yet decided ended up as Jade Shell or Jade. Her long blond hair was pulled back into the hood around her head as her dark green dress billowed out around her that the hood laid casually overtop of.

Jade's eyes became a darker shade of green and could leave others paralyzed by their almost emerald shade. Her long, dark green boots that almost looked black, climbed up to somehow be hidden beneath her dress, and she felt the thrill of being a supervillain rather than hero fill her up in an instant.

Turtles were known for being slow and wise, and Jade was no exception though it may have taken her a while to truly consider herself wise. Emilie had grown up with parents who may have not pushed the issue of trying her hardest in school though they had wanted good grades, and Emilie had paid attention in class back then. Just, she wasn't the scholarly type or nearly old enough to be wise.

Wise people didn't need to steal Miraculouses, but she'd always wanted one just as her husband had once they discovered them. Jade and Papillion as they called themselves most of the time would slowly find a way to rise up in Paris. They would rule in a way from the sidelines as they definitely didn't need to become figure heads or catch the attention of countless others.

Jade would do her best despite the turtle being more equipped for on the go battle with the shell that clung to her back and gave her a little extra bulk and power when she needed it as it dutifully became her shield if need be or even a halfway decent bashing weapon if she felt so inclined.

Emilie had never been a take it slow type of person, but she was learning and with Wayzz help when he would listen, she was getting better.

* * *

Master Fu was familiar with almost all of the Miraculous, but he'd never expected to get separated from Wayzz, his usual Kwami, and the one that Grand Guardians first got to meet as his patience could be incredible. They were also supposed to learn from a turtle, how to be patience and really take things into consideration and be wise with handling them.

Wayzz could teach the world quite a few things as every life that he touched, he tended to change for the better, but Master Fu would make do with Duusuu, the peacock Kwami, one that he'd already met a while ago as well.

The world needed a Le Paon sometimes, and Duusuu was known for being able to tell and understand the future in a way that most would not expect. She was one of the first Kwami to be met by a Grand Guardian because of that fact. The longer you grew accustomed to her, the longer you came to see the world in a different light.

Sometimes though Duusuu could be a real worrier. "Master, Master." She breathed out in a rush, "Someone's misusing Nooroo. They've been for a while or at least starting to. We need to give Plagg and Tikki to someone or fight him ourselves. Could we? We make an incredible team." Her nerves made her feathers ruffle, and her general excitement was latched on to so tightly by a fear that kind of made Master Fu worry in a way.

"Duusuu, we'll have to test something out to find two new Miraculous holders." He calmly explained, "Besides, I'm not sure if I could really be much help nowadays." It was true as he worried that he couldn't quite transform to go save the day anymore. His body would probably try to quite working on him especially with his intense back pain that went on and off.

He'd do his best to try though if he really was needed. "Master," Duusuu paused, "What are we to do? Oh, I kind of like that plan."  
Her slowly growing smile relieved his nerves a little, "I know just the place. Don't forget the girl will be Ladybug and the boy, Cat Noir. They'll be a great team."

"I hope so." Master Fu agreed as he slowly stood up, "When should we head out?"

"Soon, but Papillion won't be a problem for a few months. Wait for school to start up for the boy. Oh, I can't wait." She beamed, "You know, your choice for Plagg and for Tikki will be a wonderful one. Oh, they'll fall in love, and they really do make a great team."

"Okay, I'll wait a little longer as long as you're positive that that's what you see." Master Fu relented as he carefully sat back down, worried about overexerting his pained back.

"Yeah, as long as things stay the way that I see them, we'll be fine." Duusuu smiled back up at him, "Though as always, there's room for mistakes." She looked nearly crestfallen as she remembered that fact, "Will I get a new holder if things get worse than they are, and will I like him or her?"

"You'll just have to see about that, Duusuu." He admitted as for now, there would be two more holders in the world very soon, but who knows until it gets that far just how big of a problem that Papillion will be.

"Alright, I hope that I like him if it does happen." She nestled up against Master Fu's chest, "I hope Wayzz will be fine. I think he's going to be dormant soon."

"Alright, do you know where he's at to save him?" Master Fu asked gently as Duusuu sometimes could know really impressive stuff while some days, it was hard for her to know many details.

"Not at all." Duusuu pouted as she shut her eyes and just stayed close, "I can't know too much."

Specifics weren't always her strong suit anyway, and while it would feel like an itch that he couldn't scratch that Wayzz would soon be dormant in Paris somewhere and out of Master Fu's range of bringing him back home or as home as they could be at anyway with the old temples destroyed and in a different nation.

Even Kwamis had their own restrictions.


	9. Summer Camp

"So why are you here?" The kindly old man asked the group of teenagers, hoping that may be they were here for some of the right reasons.

"Father and mother hope that I'll get better at design." Adrien muttered, glumly, feeling like the outcast of the whole group already. He'd felt like such the instant that he arrived, and even when his mother told him that he'd be here for a little more than a week. 'Just to practice,' she'd call it, and Adrien was sure that he was going to dread that word, 'practice.'

"I'm a fan of street art." A girl exclaimed, and Adrien wondered if that meant that just the look in her eyes and the smile on her face were dangerous. She kind of looked the part too though he wasn't quite sure if there was a look for a street artist.

"I'm here for the makeup lessons." Grumbled a familiar voice, and something about that made Adrien wonder just how Chloe had been convinced to be here. The girl by her side looked extremely excited.

"Me too. I also want to learn a little more about fashion." Sabrina looked really happy about all that, and Adrien wondered if it was her idea and somehow Chloe had gotten roped into the whole thing.

"I write songs." Peeped up a girl with short blond hair, "I thought that camp would be fun."

"I just write." Grumbled a girl by her side who looked almost like her complete opposite and yet couldn't be since the girls stood close to each other.

"Juleka, you write so well. It's so pretty, all of it." Chirped the blond, and the man running the camp sent a kind smile their way.

"It really is to bring out your best talents." He agreed.

"I'm a reporter to be, so I do a bit of writing and research and recording." A girl spoke up, standing close to what was likely a good friend of hers.

"I'm into fashion design." The girl beside her spoke up, and Adrien wondered if that would mean that he'd spend a lot of time around her, learning the ropes from her since they clearly hadn't sunk in over the years with his father.

"I'm a DJ and a film maker." A boy not far from the girls spoke up, grinning over at the the camp leader.

"I draw comic type characters among a few other things." A boy with reddish orange hair spoke up though there was a hint of a blush to his face as if he was a little shy or a little embarrassed.

"I write." A dark haired boy spoke up, "It's nothing much, but we thought it might help to get a little practice and make new friends." His voice grew soft at the last part.

"I write songs too." A bigger man spoke up.

A girl with rainbow colored hair beside him spoke up after him, "I act, a little bit."

"I make robots. I heard that you'd even accept robotics, right?" A boy with glasses answered the question.

"I play guitar, and I've been trying to write some of my own songs for it." A boy with varying shades of blue hair finally answered.

"I thought I'd try it out." Muttered a taller boy rather glumly, "Alix was going so..." He trailed off, and the pink haired girl that liked street art shook her head at him.

"Kim and I like to one up each other." She explained easily, "He's not an artist though. He'll probably try to learn some street art techniques or something." 'Alix' shrugged.

"We'll be trying a little bit of everything and learning our strengths as we go. It should come in handy for Kim to learn a few different kinds of art and even for Adrien to." The leader explained, "For today though, stick with the group that is doing your type of art and practice just for a bit. If you want prompts, I can go get you some, but today should be just a settling in day, an easy day for you." He moved to the edge of the room, and Adrien found himself walking towards the fashion designer to be.

Their instructors as well as the challenges that they'd have would start tomorrow, but Adrien just really hoped that he didn't make a fool out of himself with his lack of experience in any art field. May be he'd sneak into the writing group later on as he might be able to do that at least though he wasn't sure that he was any good at that either.

"Adrikins!" Chloe exclaimed as she latched herself onto him, "Did someone just try to convince you that this was a good idea and drop you off here too? It's going to be dreadful! How am I ever going to make it through, and they are telling me that I'm supposed to stay here the whole time, and my daddy and my mommy won't even take me home after today. I'm going to go into law, not 'art.'" She finally ended her speech, and Adrien wondered if somehow he'd ended up more tired from all of this than he had to be.

"May be it will be good for you." The journalist grumbled as she walked away, "I'll see you later, Marinette. Still rooming together?"  
"Of course." The fashion designer smiled at the other girl as she turned back to the group, "So should we start with what we know then?"

Chloe huffed, "I've never made my own clothes before. Don't expect me to start now."

"I've only tried to learn how to sew a few times before." Adrien muttered as he realized that he'd probably look pitiful with a sewing needle despite his parents packing that and a few other supplies for him to use here.

"I've always wanted to learn." Sabrina admitted, "I just never could find lessons."

"I'll help you out then." Marinette admitted as she sat down and shown them how to hold the needle and a few basic ways to sew. "It might give you just a little bit of practice before everything starts up a lot harder tomorrow."

"Should I trust a baker's daughter when she tells me how to hold a needle?" Chloe complained as she tried to hold a needle that Marinette had lent her and Sabrina to use for practice for today.

"You can." Marinette muttered, "I don't only know how to bake."

"Could have surprised me." Chloe grumbled yet again, "What are those rags you're wearing?"

Marinette chose to ignore her as she focused on helping Sabrina out with perfecting one of the techniques that she'd shown her.

"Chloe, please just try to be happy." Sabrina murmured, "We get to spend all this time together and really get to learn about the fashion industry." She gushed, "I wonder who the instructors will be."

Marinette smiled back at her, "I can't wait either."

* * *

The next day's class managed to seem way more intense than Marinette's mini-lesson had been though Chloe and Sabrina had both left for makeup and weren't in it, much to Marinette's relief which Adrien tried not to pay too much attention to. He was supposed to be a good friend for Chloe anyway though he could understand quite well why she was relieved to not share the day with his childhood best friend.

Adrien was immensely grateful for Marinette's mini-lesson yesterday, and her patient support today. She would pause almost as often as the instructor if not more than she did, to double check how far Adrien was and if he needed any extra help or further guidance.

While embarrassment seemed to cling to him and the difficulty of the class seemed way beyond him, Marinette and the instructor both encouraged him and made it just a little bit easier to feel motivated enough to push himself and try to figure this out.

The first half of the day's class was simply on how to sew, including more than a few different ways of how to do so according to the project, such as repairing something or creating something brand new and how each different technique yielded a different looking stitch and where to use different kinds of stitches and how they looked. The instructor had even went over how to use a machine versus hand sewing and had them complete a series of projects from small, stuffed animals to fixing pillow cases and blankets.

Adrien had struggled more than he wanted to admit with all of that, but when they remet up for class after lunch, he found his worst obstacle yet as the instructor brought them through the basics of designing, and there was only so much help he could get with that.

They were given a few different tasks of what to design as far as type of clothing and a prompt to work with. The instructor would give them suggestions of ways to improve their designs that could be followed if proved to be useful or just acknowledged or tips like try to be mindful of this or that because it will weigh down the wearer.

Adrien felt more than a little bad that he was often asking how well his design was turning out and for advice. It went from overly simply to may be just a little bit tacky though he was positive, way more than positive actually, that if his father saw it, he'd give the business to someone else or just have Adrien run the business side with a very talented fashion designer actually handling the fashion related parts.

Neither the instructor or Marinette were rude about it, and Adrien figured that that was a good thing as any more embarrassment might just make him crumble or melt into a big pile of disappointed goo. He'd try his best for his father's sake and for the sake of the two coaching and motivating him here, but he was half positive that he'd get nowhere.

* * *

The next day was a writing focused day, and so they were encouraged to explore what kind of medium writing was and how to actually do so. It started off with a basic exercise of write whatever comes to mind and see where it takes you in which they were asked a series of questions after writing about the characters or the plot or other basic questions that felt at times easy to answer and yet still managed to stump Adrien more than he was happy to know.

He'd learned the Marc was the black haired kid that admitted that he wrote, and that he wrote very well as well as was very shy and humble over that fact. Later in the lesson, Marc scooted closer to help Adrien out with fixing up some sentences for a writing assignment with a prompt and giving gentle advice and inquiries.

"So what do you want him to do?" Marc asked as he looked up at him with bright green eyes, "You don't want him standing around and doing nothing here as it would sound a little flat, not that he's a bad character or anything. He's great. It's just that..." He trailed off, and Adrien wasn't sure if his writing was that bad or if he'd literally just met the kindest and most helpful person ever.

"I thought may be he'd try to call for help or something, but may be it doesn't come right away, and he has to do something, but I'm not sure what." Adrien truly was stumped.

"Okay, is his phone broken?" Marc asked with a small smile as he slowly calmed down and tried to relax now.

"No, the service is bad, and his phone is dying." Adrien admitted.

"Is the fight going to be bad?" He asked, "Like really violent or bloody or something, I mean." Marc was quick to clarify.

"Not too bad, but when he steps in..." Adrien went on.

"It gets worse?" Marc asked, "So they get angrier then?" His smile grew wider and so, so gentle, and Adrien wasn't sure if writers normally discussed scene progression or plot, but he kind of liked this as he wrote out another sentence for his story with Marc asking questions every now and again to keep the inspiration building and going and making Adrien think through every character's choice and mindset.

It really did help though Adrien was blown away by the talent of sone of the other writers in the class, especially hearing how quickly Rose's story turned with suspense and went darker and darker still in a kind of mind altering way. Adrien wasn't sure if her story was supposed to go there, but he wasn't going to ask.

Juleka's really stunned him with how beautiful and well thought out each word seemed as the story continued on and on before eventually ending as a beautiful almost gothic love story finished up. She even managed to find a way to speak the words out loud and have it all flow together so beautifully.

Alya's included just enough foreshadowing and detail that Adrien felt like she'd planned it for weeks, and Adrien wasn't even through talking about how talented and different every story seemed. Some felt kind of like songs but much, much longer and others felt a little more poetic.

Adrien hadn't realized just how many different directions or styles that different writers could have, but from what he'd read and heard so far, he was stunned.

* * *

The next assigment involved writing poetry, and Adrien wasn't too terrible at that. He didn't need a plot unless it was narrative. He wasn't perfect by any means, but he only knew how to write love poems. Just, he didn't have anyone that he was sure that he liked like that yet, so he kept some of the details vague or scarce to avoid questions that he couldn't answer.

Juleka's felt deep and personal as if she were writing the very words enscribed on her soul, and Adrien knew that he wasn't the only one with wet eyes in the room. You could feel it in the air though Juleka quietly accepted the silence without saying another word.

Rose's words felt like a rock song, and Adrien wondered vaguely if those were the kinds of words that she wrote. Luka's definitely felt a little more rock song based or alternative, and Ivan's felt rock song based.

Nino's words were romantic though sounded like it was supposed to be something other than a poem, and Alya's poem was very straight to the point. Marinette described a design as far as fashion went.

Chloe's was probably worse than Adrien's was, but no one said an ill word about anyone's poem as they were given the next assignment to write a song.  
It went about as well with a few people that were obviously more experienced doing the best, but everyone else trying their hardest at this new style of writing. Adrien just wasn't sure anymore if writing was just hard or if he'd failed at finding a creative field to call his own.

* * *

The next day, Adrien found himself learning how to draw first thing. Nathanael paused in a drawing to help him out as he carefully guided Adrien through drawing a person which really wasn't easy.

"Thank you." Adrien muttered, and he wondered how his drawings tended to look ten times worse than Nathanael's stunning, comic book inspired drawings did at the very least.

"It was no problem to help you out." Nathanael told him and then Adrien watched as Nathanael reached over to help Marc out too. "Here draw that like this. Try to make that line a little straighter like this or at least make it look straighter."

His hand gently rested over Marc's as he carefully instructed the other boy over how to draw whatever he was drawing. "There, all better, right?" Nathanael spoke up, and Adrien found himself smiling as he watched how much more excited Marc looked at the gentle help.

"It looks a lot better. Thank you." Marc told him with a bright grin as he looked down at his drawing, "What does yours look like?"  
"It's not done yet, but..." Nathanael shown him.

"It's great so far." Marc admitted, and somehow seemed even more humble.

Adrien turned his own attention back to his artwork in order to hopefully draw something halfway decent and not end up distracting Nathanael and tearing him away from his art.

After a few too many frustrated times erasing the same wobbly line from his page, he drew the attention of someone else.

"Need any help?" Marinette moved closer, "I could help you draw the clothes if you want me too. I'm almost done with my drawing."

"That would help a lot." Adrien admitted, and he wondered how someone could be nearly as kind as Marinette was. It was incredible how much she didn't mind helping someone else out, and how happy she was to do so.

Just Adrien was ready for drawing to be over, so that they could get ready for the next day of exploring a different type of creative field or just the next activity.

* * *

The day wasn't over as they decided to do street art next, and Adrien actually discovered with a little help from the instructor and Alix that he liked it. He wasn't super great at it or anything or anywhere near the level that Alix was at, but they encouraged him to not think over how museum like it looked, but to focus on just moving with whatever comes to mind and letting the stress melt away.

Adrien was smiling and enjoying the project for the rest of the time, and he could help how excited it made him finally through camp.

* * *

The next day was robotics, and once Max and the instructor started helping the class with building the robots, Adrien was able to quickly come to understand the math and science of it. He wasn't perfect by any means, and he definitely understood the creativity of it, but the science and math were simple enough for him to follow.

Physics was still his favorite subject over robotics, but he didn't mind in the least when he finished his robot quicker though not the prettiest looking one of them all and that he finally got a chance to repay the favor by helping Marinette out.

Marinette gave him a thankful smile and just kept on thanking him and looking so, so happy. Adrien didn't notice until much later that something had shifted between them and ended up a little different than before, but at the very least, she didn't become distant with him at all.

* * *

With every day, Adrien grew just a little bit closer to everyone at the art camp for a little bit of their Summer, and he may have discovered a messy new passion of his that his father and mother probably wouldn't like instead of becoming a fashion designer.

"Father, can I paint my room?" Adrien asked.

"Sure." Was his answer, and with that, Adrien's parents got way more than they bargained for as Adrien ended up spray painting his room with a few cans of different colored spray paint that Alix had gifted him before he left from camp as long as he promised to stay in touch.

He'd make sure that he stayed in touch with everyone from camp, because with every new project, he'd gotten just a little bit closer to all of them. When Adrien ended up grounded for making a mess of his room, he couldn't find it in himself to be completely upset or guilty about it as he kind of wanted to keep on spray painting, just figuring out where he could do so without getting in huge trouble would become a big problem of his.


	10. Secret Agent

Marinette Dupain-Cheng Agreste hadn't always been a secret agent, and neither had she always wanted to be one and yet on the thrill of one of her first missions, it became a high that she couldn't quite live without, not as her skin prickled with a kind of anticipation of whatever would come through that door.

Alya had been the first person to actually talk her into it after all, assuring her that the risk was safe though it often wasn't, and trying to encourage her 'to live a little or the fear of the unknown is not worth losing your life for.' Sometimes Marinette really did wonder if her best friend was more of a secret agent or more of a journalist and yet Marinette had found herself pausing in the grand ballroom of one of her earliest missions, looking around for the informant that she was supposed to capture and bring back into the base for him to be interrogated. What she was not looking for at all was to dance with one of Gabriel's lead models and the fashion designer's son.

Marinette had always wanted to go into fashion, and may be if she hadn't gotten sunk into this career, hook, line, and sinker, she might have even been over the moon to learn exactly what it might be like to work for a fashion company whether you were a model, a designer, a secretary, or whomever. She'd honestly probably have even interviewed a janitor just to know what Gabriel was like from the inside.

"Hello?" Marinette asked softly, trying to only catch the attention of the man now dancing with her, the very Adrien Agreste. On this mission though, she wasn't the Marinette Dupain-Cheng that had always wanted to be a fashion designer one day, she became Ladybug, quick on her feet and even quicker when it came time to come up with a plan in a pinch.

"Hi." Adrien smiled at her, and even though they were grown adults, there was something undeniably cute about that that almost made her want to laugh.

"You look stunning. Did you design that dress yourself? It doesn't look like any of Father's designs." There was something almost robotic about what he said, forced politeness, and she wondered if he'd only decided to dance with her to ask about the dress for his father or if he was covering for something.

"I did, but I did so a while ago." Marinette shrugged, "I wanted to be a fashion designer for a long time and if I have a moment or two, I still like to design or to sew."

"What changed?" Adrien Agreste suddenly seemed way more invested in the conversation than she'd ever expected him to be.

"I got a different job." She smiled though she finally caught sight of her informant, "I got to go." And she was gone in a flash, already making her way at a quick clip to the man that she was supposed to capture, trying to lay on the 'Ladybug Charm.'

"Sir?" She asked politely, "Could I have a dance or two by any chance?" Marinette sometimes worried that she made herself look far too innocent for what she actually did as he smiled and let her lead him on to the dance floor that she'd barely vacanted just a few moments before.

She pretended to be perfectly polite and civil until after about fifteen minutes or so when she gladly dragged him out of the dance room and out of the whole building before hand cuffing him and nudging him towards her car, a small indiscreet car, made to look like a common, small car from the area as if she could be anyone. That and her tendency to abide by every traffic law kept her safe from being found out.

"What are you doing?" He demanded quickly enough once she'd managed to push him into the passenger seat and right before she buckled him up.

"Taking you to meet my boss. Just treat it like another business deal if you'd like." It was fine as long as he didn't question too much until they got there. The highest risk for her had been to get that promotion and figuring out how to capture the informant without being caught by the police, but she'd never expected having her heart stolen would become her greatest risk that day.

* * *

The elusive black cat or Cat Noir as he called himself was her rival as far as she'd consider one that she couldn't tell you what he looked like. He had a tendency to either already be on the scene or to have left before she arrived though she never realized that the man slowly courting her or at least doing so in a bit more old fashioned way was the same man that sometimes took her mission's job away from her.

Ladybug and Cat Noir had never ever been allies, and Ladybug had refused to start even now though when she felt a slight tremor and spun around to face a mostly empty elevator other than her boyfriend, she wasn't entirely sure why what felt like Cat Noir was there or should have been when it was only just Adrien Agreste.

It had given her a slight fright and put her on the defensive which wasn't hard to calm herself down from. It was only the man that she was beginning to fall for and not the man that was getting on her last nerve with last minute clues to his presence when he succeeded, and she did not.

He was rumored to wear mostly black and bright green, and his hair was believed to be such a bright yellow and his eyes such a deep, foresty green that you could get lost in them. Mainly people spoke of the allure that followed him around and clung to him and how he was a master at using that kind of charm and getting people to just fall into listening to him.

If so, Ladybug kind of admired him for knowing just how to get people to just listen to him, but it also made her wonder exactly what people said about her and who spoke up the most about her after they'd met.

* * *

Ladybug was an impressive secret agent unless you managed to successfully stump her like the picture before her on the table did. It had been a couple years since she and Adrien had gotten married, but she'd never expected to see a picture of him and his father on the table as her next mission.

"Eliminate them." Her boss murmured through a worn out looking robot, "We have the mother under interrogation, but we have reason to suspect that at least one of those men are working against us."

"How?" Marinette muttered, curious over just how much information they had on her husband and her father-in-law and just kind of wanted to check up on her mother-in-law, a woman that she'd never really gotten to meet after all this time since she'd been missing from before Marinette had met Adrien.

"You can get a woman to speak. Remember that, and there's at least one Agreste present when one of our missions goes wrong and when Cat Noir overtakes our strategies and plans." Was the answer that she received.

"Okay." Choosing to backstab her loyal as far as she could tell husband and his usually distant father did not sound like a good plan at all to her especially when the word, 'eliminate,' was thrown in there for good measure.

* * *

Convincing her husband to get a tracker app on his phone wasn't nearly as hard as Marinette would have thought it would be especially as she tinkered with the phone to have it record audio and video if a few key words were spoken: a tactic that she'd learned from both Alya and Max before that had taught her a few ways of making technology do the work for you.

It even wasn't hard to stay on stake out which was basically pretending to sleep at night as she held her husband close and really just listened and waited to see if he'd rush off or pull out a gun or something. Nothing major ever happened on stakeout lately though she wouldn't put it past him if he was a secret agent.

She even managed to put a tracker on her father-in-law's phone which did next to nothing, and disable visibility on her tracker app, so that if she ever got a better, smoother, and quicker mission sometime soon that Adrien wouldn't be able to know where she was.

The odd thing was that the very next day, the day after she disabled her app, Adrien disabled his. Was he calling a quiet compromise or was he just tired of Marinette knowing exactly where he was every second of every day as long as the phone would let her see where he was.

His father did next to nothing, and eventually, Marinette was ready to just ask her husband one dinner when he was cutting into a piece of meat. "Marinette, are you a secret agent too?"

It stopped her short, and it took Marinette perhaps a little too long to answer as her husband was just starting to brush away his question and ask something a little more normal when finally the words tumbled out, "Y-Yeah, you are?"

"They want me to interrogate you and then kill you." Adrien muttered, looking rather glum, "How long have you been a secret agent?"

"You expect me to let you interrogate me?" Marinette complained as she moved to sit a bit farther away from her husband.

"I'm not interrogating ypu, honest. I was just a bit curious." Adrien admitted, looking a bit more awkward than she'd ever expected him to be after a question like that one.

"For longer than I've known you then. Don't make me regret this." Marinette grumbled as she answered him anyway.

"Was I just an assignment?" Adrien muttered as his green eyes looked a little far away, distant, and sad.

"Not really." Marinette admitted honestly.

"You weren't for me either." Adrien answered back, and he looked just as honest as he was before.

"Is your father one too?" Marinette asked, "I couldn't find anything there about it.

"Yeah, but he's not Cat Noir at all. He's more of a boss with a disguising fashion business. It distracts really well, he says." He answered his wife.

"Oh." Marinette murmured, "What should we do for our missions?"

"What do you feel like we should do about them?" Adrien asked her, and Marinette saw in her mind what answer that she should do follow through with for her career, but she felt deep down that she wasn't entirely sure if she could kill this man that she'd willingly married.

"We are supposed to kill each other, but..." Marinette trailed off, "I'm not sure if we should."

"I don't want to kill you, M'lady." He muttered, and Marinette felt a small hint of relief as long as he wasn't lying to her as he very well could be given their professions.

"You don't have to." Marinette told him, and somehow through sheer determination, they would fight to survive and make it through this as she refused to let them die by anything putting their careers above their marriage.


	11. Mermaid

Pink glistening under the sun, scales bright nearly white if she sat just beneath the sun as if they weren't ever as pink as they were. She'd been named for the color that they were before the sun drowned it out at times, pink Rose.

She dipped back under the waves, letting them crash above her head, and finding her way back home among the corals and away from human touch. A whole life dipped in mystery and allure that some felt like pushing the envelope, pushing that boundary between the two worlds: one caught by sea, another by the sturdiness of land.

Rose didn't see the point in taunting or teasing humans, because she didn't see them as something weird as she knew that her dad was part human, that his scales had faded into a dark green, dull, almost void of color though if you knew him, you'd never guess how cross cultured he actually was.

She smiled as she dipped deeper under water, eager to be home, to race her best friend and not pause to wonder just what the surface held that her father didn't know about. He'd told them all that he wasn't too tempted to explore being human for even another moment longer as there was no need to divide himself up anymore, not when he had both his precious girls here: Rose, his only child, and her mother, the love of his life.

Rose didn't ever feel like less than the other mermaids as she zipped by, and yet she hadn't yet found herself eager to start searching for a 'mate' or a husband as she was still young enough to count each wave and bubble on slow days, to race underwater against her best friend, and to laugh at her father's jokes without a care in the world.

What was the rush when there was already so much joy in her life? She smiled when the 'town' came into view, corals leaned in neat sections, and some creative ones looked almost like human houses despite being made of coral. Some on the outskirts lived in caves: mermen and mermaids with their families living among the dark and spending time with the fish that called those places home.

Rose hated those places when it was night, and she was supposed to fall asleep, always so tempted to swim to the mouth of the cave and try to forget that she was in a cave. Her best friend lived in one and so that meant trying to deal with that fear of hers during sleepovers there. She always felt like the water was much colder in one even when it wasn't.

Juleka's place where she lived was so pretty though. She had gifts from her father who lived in a 'cottage' by the sea from what she heard from her. Dark trinkets and spiraling fabric that Juleka tried to explain as 'curtains' or 'dresses' or 'rock and roll T-shirts.' Rose still wasn't sure what 'rock and roll' even was, but she avoided asking for fear of saying something really dumb.

Juleka looked like her favorite colors with dark purple-black hair that spun around her in waves whenever she swam, and a dark tail that glittered gray in the sun, a dark gray but a gray nonetheless, and black in the sea. It sparkled like the sun; Rose was absolutely positive no matter what anyone told her, and it was just so pretty.

Juleka talked about hair dye sometimes, 'My hair's too black. I want a purple streak or two. Dad's fine with it as long as I don't dye my whole hair.'

'Don't die. I want to keep playing tag with you and telling you all of my best jokes and visiting you and talking to you.' Rose had pouted and suddenly, Juleka laughed, shaking that long hair that curled around her so very often.

'Not die, like not be alive. Dye like changing the color of one thing to another. It's like the fabric, I show you. Someone takes 'dye' to it, and it changes color.' She explained, and Rose stared, trying to imagine Juleka changing even some of her hair color.

'How? Why?' Rose had found herself asking, wondering if humans were crazy to change the color of one thing into a different color. What would that change about it? How much would change? It seemed weird, liking imagining water the color of Juleka's hair or Rose's scales looking bright yellow or a deep, deep red. None of that made sense to her.

'To say something. It's like when you like the color pink, you might want to wear pink fabric which didn't start out as pink but white instead or if you like colorful hair, dying yours a different color since you like it.' Juleka had shrugged, and while Rose still hadn't understood and didn't quite get it now, she figured that it was just a way of liking things just a little bit different.

"Rose!" Juleka called out, already zipping to her side, "How was the sun?"

"It felt great on my scales like always!" She answered with a bright smile; she went to her rock as often as she could which was less often whenever they had classes to go to or had to help out with anything major.

"That's good." Juleka smiled swimming much more slowly to match Rose's more relaxed pace, "Want to have a sleepover tonight? Dad's coming to the beach later tonight, and I was hoping that you'd want to meet him."

"Really?" Rose asked, eyes wide and bright blue, "He's human, right? What's he like?"

"He's pretty funny, and he always brings along cool stuff to give us. He let's Luka play on an old guitar of his since guitars aren't allowed to be submerged. He's probably taking that to the beach tonight, and you can learn more about your human side." Juleka smiled, and Rose really did wonder what her grandparents were like on her father's side or rather one side of them.

Most mermaids fell in love with mermen and settled down to raise more traditional families, but every now and again someone switched it up kind of like Anarka did who was basically married to a human and regularly visited him and even had two kids with him.

Luka talked often of moving to land to live with his dad when he was older, to really get a chance to 'make a band' and since he didn't want to stay down here for the rest of his life while Juleka remained undecided. She was left in the small group of half-mers that didn't want to leave their family and close friends behind to live on land even though they could just fine.

Rose technically could move to land if she wanted to, but she would hate leaving her mother and father behind to go carve out a dream and meet grandparents that she'd never known. She didn't have the same relationships with her grandparents or so on her father's side that her best friend had with her dad.

"He'll let me come to?" Rose asked as she stared up at Juleka in wide eyed amazement.

"Yeah, he's always wanted to meet you." Juleka swam in lazy circles, "He wants to meet Luka's friends too, but he doesn't really have a best friend since he wants to live on land with Dad one day and kind of avoids that."

"Oh." Rose murmured, "I'll ask Mom and Dad if I can go and if I can spend the night. It would be so cool!" She exclaimed. It really would be cool to be meet Juleka's dad one of the three people that had helped make Juleka the mer that she was today. Her brother being the third and a pretty big part of Juleka's life despite the fact that sometimes they bickered like you wouldn't believe.

"Yeah." Juleka smiled, "I hope that they say, 'yes.' I don't think they'll really say 'no,' since they've let you stay the night before, and that your dad's half human, half mer."

"They probably will. I'll see you later!" Rose called out as she swam off to find go home and ask her parents if she could stay the night and meet Juleka's dad.

* * *

How did one act when they were meeting their first human? It probably wasn't that different, but Rose was nervous anyway as she slipped on a borrowed T-Shirt from Juleka that was a bit too big on her.

Was he really nice? Were his jokes too human to understand or find funny? Juleka was the one of the most human-like mers that Rose had ever met, and sometimes she needed to ask Juleka what something human was to better understand it or ask what something her best friend had said meant. Sometimes she didn't even ask often enough to even understand everything that Juleka said.

"Relax, it's just Dad." Juleka smiled as she packed some stuff for the journey that would probably feel a little long for Rose despite being a pretty easy journey for the Couffaine's.

"You're packing snacks?" Rose murmured, half wanting to help, but half unsure what to bring along.

"Mer food for Dad. He tries some of it sometimes, and snacks for the journey for you if you get hungry or on the way back if you're starving." Juleka shrugged.

"Dad brings us food too." Juleka explained, "Sometimes Mom lets us walk up to Dad's cabin. It's not far from the beach, but Mom can't really walk that far anyway since she's full mer."

"Oh." Rose murmured, "Could I walk that far?"

"Probably, you have human in you." Juleka answered with a smile, "May be Mom will let us today, and we'll see. She might not since you've never been there or met Dad before."  
"Okay." Rose muttered, "It's so odd to think about. I'm so excited and nervous."

"It will be fine. I'll be there, besides it's my dad, and he's pretty cool." Juleka smiled, "Besides how many mermaids do you know that you have human dads?"

"Only you." Rose admitted with a small, feeling like laughing even though she wasn't. It was like a game though the only answer really was Juleka.

"Yep, and so it will be cool. Trust me." Most mers while not outright against humans and mers being together tended to avoid the half-mers since they were mixed with human. Rose didn't understand it though it often meant that others avoided her too once they realized that human was definitely in Rose though they couldn't tell at first glance and didn't see her living with just one of her parents like Juleka was since Rose's human side was just a little bit further back in her family tree.

"Okay." Rose murmured, "It's just so new."

"I'm surprised that your grandparents never really arranged to see you." Juleka muttered, looking a little sad. "I'd bring my kids around to see my parents as much as I could wherever I live one day. I'd make beach visits and cottage visits, and they'd know Mom and Dad pretty well."

"I like that. You can't miss someone you've never known though." Rose added, shaking her head and trying to avoid the thought of her grandparents not really trying with her.

"You can miss them, Rose." Juleka muttered as her brother went and got them to tell them that it was time to go.

* * *

Rose had never been to a beach before as she leaned gently against hot sand and tried to ignore the slight burn of it and met a dark haired man with a bright smile that looked so kindly that she was sure that he had to be Juleka's dad since he waved and came closer.

"Oh, are you Rose?" He spoke with a funny accent, an accent that sometimes she'd heard Juleka accidentally speak in. The only explanation that she'd ever heard was that it was the way that a human speaking a specific human language with a name that Rose couldn't remember sounded like when they tried to speak their mer language.

"Yeah." Rose nodded her head, and he smiled back at her.

"Have you ever tried candy before?" He asked, and Rose wondered what that was until he offered something to her that Juleka opened up and offered a dark brown piece of. Rose liked it as the flavor exploded on her tongue and her eyes closed. It didn't taste at all like fish or anything similar to fish.

She wasn't really sure what to call it or how to exactly describe it.

"It's milk chocolate." Juleka explained, "Dad gave us a whole bar of it."

Rose was positive that her eyes were wide at that moment, but she hoped that Juleka would share more with her later. She found herself stunned as Juleka's dad gave light and detail to the things that her father had mentioned a few times before, and Rose found herself listening at full attention and wanting to visit again especially as she found out that she really could walk to the cabin with Luka and Juleka and their dad though Rose couldn't move very fast.

She wanted to play cards, listen to guitar and rock and roll music and eat chocolate every single day of her life. It was so cool! Rose wondered if she'd ever get a chance to experience so many cool human things so much in her life ever again.

She'd buy chocolate everyday if she could and learn guitar from Luka and if she couldn't ever figure guitar out, she'd go to the 'concerts' that Juleka and Luka's dad said that 'rock bands' had sometimes. Rose had learned that rock and roll was often shortened to just rock music by a lot of people and that bands were groups of people that played music together and guitars were often in them.

She wanted to write the words to the songs though they'd been hard to figure out at first in the songs. Rose would just ask Juleka to teach her that language since she was bilingual and may be help her understand the music so that she can write for it.

To sing those words would be even more incredible, to stand on 'stage,' and play music for everyone to hear sounded amazing. Rose was convinced that if human life was like that than she wanted to be a part of it so very much.


	12. Royalty

Rumors spread from letters delivered to the Diamond Kingdom among many that the Clubs Kingdom was looking for war, a chance to invade, and conquer that the new royalty in charge of the kingdom were restless and looking for blood. Rose, born to the crown, still found herself uneasy as she paced the floor of their average size as far as the kingdoms' living quarters tended to be.

'Queen Rose,  
I glumly write to tell you that it won't be long until King Ivan and Queen Mylene invade your kingdom with the fullest attempts at taking it over and leaving you out on the streets as they reign over the land that you've called home your whole life. I feel that i must inform you that you should really consider speaking with the Clubs Kingdom and resolving this issue soon.

Yours truly by blood now,

Joker Gabriel Agreste.'

It would be fine if it was from anyone other than her father-in-law, the only Joker that she'd ever known, and already, it felt taxing enough as is. Sometimes Jokers got restless and had kingdoms wage war on each other though sometimes they merely just let them happen. Jokers weren't allowed to pick sides, but at one point, she'd felt fairly certain that if he could pick sides, he'd be on hers.

When Rose had married the Joker's only son, she'd inherited a whole slew of problems due to his tendency to get almost uneasy at peace since his wife had been taken back away from him and treated as a different kingdom's distant princess. Emilie Agreste had been a princess once, before she'd ran away to be with one of the two Jokers and before everything became a confusing mess piled high, higher above their heads than she'd ever known.

"Rose?" A quiet voice asked, and she stopped her pacing to look on her husband, the rightful king of her kingdom since she'd chosen to marry him. He stood in an almost small way, shoulders slightly hunched in whether by exhaustion or by the pressing down label that many addressed him as now, she wasn't sure.

It was almost like seeing him for the first time. Once sunshiney blond hair graying at the tips much too young and starting to become a messy disarray of hair from a stressful day, assuming he'd gotten a letter as well, or that the servants were whispering far too loud again or some other inconvience or major problem. Adrien had a bad habit of running his fingers through his hair when he was stressed out and lately, it had seemed like too much of a problem to arrange for a barber to cut his hair to a much more managable style that he'd less likely ruin in hardly any hours.

His eyes shown the age that he wasn't even at just like his hair as they looked beaten down, less lifelike than when she'd first married him a little over two years ago, and she wasn't sure if he was lazily staring at her or if his mind had wandered far, far away.

Adrien's royal garments were wrinkly and clung all wrong over his body after a full day on the move and dealing with problem after problem, quite a few of which his father just may have caused.

"Yes, honey?" She answered, adjusting her ballgown before stepping much closer to her husband just to be there, like a last minute response to his urgency, as if every moment by his side dwindled her mind's tendency to go crazy under stress.

"May I request an early evening?" It wasn't something that they had to request nor something that they actually were allowed to have, but breaking customs could happen every once in a while to ease her mind as she hurried to their door to lock it and returned back to nudge her husband to the bed.

"Not for long." She rushed out, "Queen Mylene and her husband are said to be causing problems or so your father wrote, and I still have letters from the Hearts to sort through. Queen Marinette and her husband, King Nino, wrote yet again."

"Probably just to say, 'hi,'" Adrien murmured, "Nino likes staying in touch."

"Try to keep with the royal names, so that no one accuses us of being disrespectful." Rose muttered even though they were alone as she slipped off her dress and pull on some night clothes as if it actually was as late as it felt like even though neither of them had even had dinner yet.

"We're alone, My Queen." He muttered as he lazily pulled on his night clothes before slipping into bed, "The Kingdom can wait a couple hours."

"They'll have your head if they hear that." Rose muttered as she curled up by her husband's side, savoring how warm he always felt.

"They won't." Adrien yawned, "Father gets away with dropping the royal titles every now and again."

"He's the Joker or one of two anyway." Rose answered by way of explanation for her husband, "And you're an important king to a thriving kingdom even though Marinette and Nino are our friends." Rose nuzzled close enough that she didn't feel like she had to be anything more than a woman relaxing in her husband's arms for a much deserved nap.

"Sometimes I want to be just Adrien, not King Adrien." He muttered, pulling her closer, though I do love this kingdom of ours.

"It's pretty great." Rose spoke up so very tiredly, not bothering to try to speak a little more sophisticated sounding, just a bit worn out and stressed out to the bone with no energy to really try to sound like she had more dignity just in front of her husband.

"I love you." Adrien muttered, and Rose smiled at the phrase that he didn't have to say and yet that she loved to hear so much.

* * *

"We'll deal with everything as it comes." Rose announced, fingers intertwined around her husband's hand as nerves hit her full force and made her almost want to walk away, "We shall speak to King Ivan and Queen Mylene very soon."

The crowd cheered except for those who just clapped, and Rose tried to handle everything with an upbeat smile, something that she'd been known for and that people expected just as they expected her to keep them safe. Even back before she'd married Adrien and was really new to ruling the kingdom, she'd started that practice and kept it.

The normalcy of the action soothed the worry of her citizens as they stared up at her and wondered if her kingdom was falling apart. It never was, because Queen Rose could be exceptionally stubborn whenever anyone threatened the only kingdom that she'd called home for all of these years.

* * *

"It's a room that the Joker spread, Queen Rose and King Adrien." Mylene murmured, "You know that my husband and I are rather mild mannered. The Clubs Kingdom still hasn't had the time to figure that out yet."

"You were the first civilian to marry into royalty in that kingdom too, Queen Mylene. They might still not trust you yet." King Adrien murmured, and by the sad tone of voice of his, Rose knew that he was speaking from experience. Jokers rarely had children, but when they did, their children often never married, and if they did never to royalty.

The thin tail that spread out behind him and the two, tall ears on top of his head that you could see sometimes when his hair was shorter or thinned out a bit more were not what most would call normal anyway. It was sort of why, Rose had found herself super protective over their still unborn baby as they had a few more months yet until he or she was due and they hadn't announced the pregnancy at all. That would require his father visiting based off of old royal traditions.

"King Ivan and I are too busy with the kids anyway." Queen Mylene sighed, "It's hard to really find time to even think of taking over the other kingdoms, and I know Clubs has never really been all that peaceful before, but..."

Clubs was known for their impressive military and over the years had garnered the reputation for its powerhouse of a military and the fact that it had militaristic ruler after ruler. King Ivan when he'd inherited the throne from his late parents had stunned every kingdom especially his own since he'd been believed to be mild mannered.

His appearance and deep voice often tricked people into believing that he could conquer everyone else even when he'd only ever been polite to any of them.

"Congratulations on your third kid, right?" Queen Rose asked as she settled and just kind of tried to will away her own set of nerves. Her first kid would be here roughly soon since a matter of months could pass by in a blur.

"Yeah." Mylene smiled, "We hope for a couple more, and we think that we'll go with the tradition of stronger noble becomes king or queen like the generations before us since it has worked so far and doesn't leave kids fighting one another." Queen Mylene answered easily enough.

"That will be nice." Queen Rose relaxed, watching her guards stand at every entrance and exit in the room.

"I'm sorry if you can't..." Queen Mylene cut herself off with two gloved hands to her own mouth and a mortified expression, "I'm so, so sorry. Don't be mad."  
Queen Rose wondered how she could have thought that they'd want to take over their kingdom and destroy them unless the other queen was just a really good actress though she'd doubted it since Mylene had many oppurtunities since she'd arrived for this meeting to try to overthrow the Diamon Royalty.

"I'm not mad. Don't worry about it." Queen Rose brushed it off to the side, "I'll go see if someone can prepare you, two, a room for the night." She smiled a hopeful smile as she hurried off and just barely avoided a 'You don't have to.'

The Joker was likely storing up trouble again though Queen Rose still had to meet with the other two kingdoms, the other Joker if she could find him, and probably send a spy out to check up on Ivan and Mylene and write letters back home.

A case was never as easy as the face value made it seem as Queen Rose just wished that she could go to bed and this whole mess would be over for good. King Adrien wasn't far behind her, "How long until we know for sure?"

"At least a couple more months. May be our heir will be born by then." Queen Rose shook her head at the thought.

"It's something at least." Adrien told her, and his eyes were nearly hopeful enough to remind her of when they both felt years younger and before his father decided to start causing trouble out of either how 'fun' it seemed to be or out of a curiosity to see how they handled it.

Queen Rose was just tired of all this paperwork and the extra exhastion that came right with it.

"Yeah, it is." Queen Rose answered softly, "Return to King Ivan and Queen Mylene for another moment or two and keep them entertained. I'll be back shortly."

"I love you." Adrien muttered softly against her skin as he gingerly kissed her hand before he had to go back and make sure that their guests weren't actually getting restless.

It wouldn't be easy to sort everything out between the kingdoms again, but they'd at least expend the effort and try to make them run a lot smoother for a while before Adrien's dad or the other Joker or someone else made it much worse all over again.


	13. Fake Dating

There was only so much that she could do when she found out that not only was she supposed to date sometime soon before media attacked her asking her every single question of why she wasn't dating and spinning theories all month long of why she wasn't, but her father really did want her to consider dating someone and may be one, not too soon, but not too late, settling down to raise a family that like she would, would take over the family business.

It wasn't that Adrienne wasn't attractive or that she didn't find boys attractive at all; it just was the whole Hawkmoth thing and the 'we can't spill our identities,' and her may be disastrious crush on Ladybug. He honestly was the most incredible person that she'd ever met from his ability to get past his insecurities and fight for Paris to his selfless acts and the even to his slightly nerdy and definitely sweet side that usually shown on late patrols when he didn't feel the need to act too, too professional anymore.

Not every guy could be Ladybug, and honestly, Adrienne would wait her whole life for him, but not always did you get what you wanted when you had a tough, more than stern father breathing down your back and paparazzi that could slander the kindest people ever and make them seem like evil slugs. They'd done it before, and Adrienne certainly didn't want to become a part of that disaster or rather trash heap of the worst kinds of things that you could say about people.

She wondered if they'd accept an apology from Cat Noir over why Adrienne wasn't dating, but she knew better than to even so much as ask anymore.

* * *

"So, Plagg, who should I date?" Adrienne asked from the warm haven that was her bed.

"I don't know." He looked back over to his Camembert, and she rolled her eyes over at him. He certainly wasn't throwing names out there.

"I can't date Marin. Do you see how he acts around me?" She complained gently, "I'd spook him, and Father would be suspicious."

"And he wouldn't be suspicious over any of your other school friends?" Plagg asked, and Adrienne decided to ignore that one.

"I can't date Julek, because he and Rose are kind of together. Ditto for Ivan though he probably wouldn't have wanted to date me either. Nino's my best bud, but he's taken. Chloe's a girl, so she's out unless I really want Father to kill me or for the media to go even crazier. Plus, I can't imagine honestly dating Chloe. We're like sisters." Adrienne sighed, "Who does that leave now?"

"There's that artist in your class? That shy writer that was Akumatized. Or Kim? Or Max?" Plagg suggested, "I don't know who your father would like."  
"Oh, Nathanael." Adrienne straightened up, "He isn't a fashion designer, but he's great at art, and I'm sure that he can inspire someone or learn a bit better than me from my father. He's also really nice." She smiled, "He'd be perfect. Thanks, Plagg."  
"Any time." He muttered though he watched her as if he thought that she was insane; she could have chosen Marin since that would be a lot easier down the line when identities became less of an issue that needed to be kept to themselves or at least when Ladybug and Cat Noir felt the need to talk through their identities. Squares were confusing in their own ways.

* * *

"So, Nathanael?" Adrienne felt way too nervous for a girl about to ask out someone to pretend to date her, so that the media didn't just flip out and so that her father could relax knowing that one day, his only daughter will get married and provide heirs for the Agrestes.

"Yeah?" He muttered half distracted, working on his comic with Marc since Adrienne hadn't managed to talk to him at all while they were in class or shortly before or after. She'd had to find the art room and chase him down here.

"Can I speak to you for a moment? It's really important." Adrienne wondered if it was obvious just how desperate and nervous she was getting as Nathanael finally met her eyes with his pretty green ones.

"Sure." Nathanael got up, saying a quick goodbye to Marc, and met her out in the hallway.

"So my father told me that I need a boyfriend soon, basically." Adrienne muttered, "I guess that I should have realized, because eventually I'll take over the business, and the media will go absolutely nuts if Gabriel's 'star' model can't get a boyfriend."

"Are you asking me out?" Nathanael just looked so confused, and Adrienne found herself feeling extremely guilty over all of this.

"Okay." She took a deep breath, "Will you be my fake boyfriend for now to calm my father and the media down?"

"Your fake boyfriend?" Nathanael looked lost as if he'd actually either expected her to deny trying to ask him out or just straight up ask him out.

"Yeah." She took a deep breath, "I have a massive crush on Ladybug, so I wanted to wait, but since I obviously can't date him and leave my father happy with my choices or leave the media out of it, let alone whatever Ladybug would think, I thought that I'd get a fake boyfriend for now, and you are the best person for me to date. I-I mean, you understand, right?" Adrienne felt so embarrassed as she wasn't even the type of person to run her mouth with basically no filter, excluding the times when she was Cat Noir, but right now, it was more nerves and less impulsive fun.

"So you're fake asking me out?" Nathanael asked, still seemingly coming to terms with all of this.

"Yes." Adrienne answered, "So that I don't get in trouble. I'll be a good, fake girlfriend. Whatever you want is yours. I know that I'm asking a lot."

"I do understand impossible crushes." Nathanael muttered, half under his breath, "I'll help you out to keep everything calm. You're a friend of mine, sort of."

"I'll let you know as soon as I can if we have to do anything too crazy." Adrienne murmured, and just hoped for the best. They didn't need this to fall apart and leave them both broken and torn at the edges.

* * *

"Father, I have a new boyfriend." Adrienne announced just a couple days later during the appointment that Nathalie had helped her set up with her father.

"You do? When do I get the pleasure of meeting him?" Gabriel glanced down at her.

"I'll ask him if he's free Saturday for dinner if you'd like?" It made sense to invite him over first thing to get her father's approval and to see if she really had picked right.

"That would be splendid. Please do." Gabriel answered her before his gaze went back down to his paperwork and that Adrienne took that as her cue to leave.

'Hey, Nathanael, are you free Saturday for dinner over at my place to meet my father?' She texted as quick as she could, relieved that they'd exchanged numbers shortly after he agreed to fake dating her.

'Sure. Mom says it's fine.' Was his answer to her question, and Adrienne couldn't help her bright, beaming smile. It would all be okay. He'd be there Saturday.

* * *

"What do you do in your free time?" Gabriel asked and while introductions hadn't quite happened the way that they did, she could feel Nathanael's nervousness through the hand of his that she held. It had been her idea to seal in the deal that they were dating and yet too early into the relationship to start actually kissing.

"I'm a bit of an artist, sir." He muttered, nerves making him even more polite than normal, "I draw quite a bit."

"Can I see some of your artwork some time?" Gabriel asked, and Nathanael nodded on more of an instinct than a genuine answer.

"I-I'm not sure how much you'll like it, sir." He managed to speak, "I mainly draw in a comic book like style."

"There's always something new that you can learn." In order to avoid sounding like an idiot, Nathanael figured that he wouldn't ask if Gabriel was talking about himself or Nathanael. Knowing his luck, it was a hint that if this relationship went anywhere that Nathanael would have to learn fashion design which wasn't a bad idea, but not what he wanted to hear at the moment.

"Yes, there is." Nathanael muttered politely as he cut into his food and carefully ate it with all of the manners and grace that he'd seen at the table so far and carefully avoided looking like a slob by comparison that really wasn't what he needed right now when he was meeting Adrienne's father for the first real time and as her 'boyfriend.'

"What do you think of my daughter, Nathanael?" Gabriel asked, and then everything suddenly felt too real, far too real.

"Uh." Nathanael took a deep breath to hopefully steady his sudden onslaught of nerves, "She's incredible. Adrienne is always so kind and selfless, and I really do like her sense of humor." A sense of humor that he was becoming quite familiar with the more that they texted, "She's really, really pretty. She's so talented too. I only wish that I could speak Chinese or fence anywhere near as good as she is."

"Oh?" Gabriel aksed, and it felt enough like asking for clarification that Nathanael felt the need to go on.

"I really, really like her, sir." He admitted, and he was glad that he didn't have to switch it to love since their relationship truly was new. Nathanael did really like her, and everyday it felt like they got along even better.

Adrienne's face was a bright pink, and she really, really did want to hide it from her father's sight and possibly from Nathanael's. His speech had been so, so sweet.

"That's good to hear from her boyfriend. Just remember to keep things innocent. We don't need heirs early or a scandal. She's still in school as are you." Gabriel spoke so very easily that Nathanael wondered how he was able to say that without changing a single aspect of his facial expression or without his voice wavering in even slight embarrassment or horror or something. It was calm and cool and not quite like a threat and yet Nathanael didn't want to test that either.

"I-I know. We'll keep things innocent. I was waiting for marriage first anyway." Nathanael wondered just how honest he was going to be today, because honesty just seemed to spill forth from him on the simplest whims lately.

"Okay, very well then." Gabriel stood up and strode away, looking every bit the definition of calm and composed even though both his daughter and her 'boyfriend' really were anything but. Adrienne had even squeaked when her father had told them to not do anything that might end up with her pregnant, and her face had went so red and scarlet that Nathanael was slightly worried for her.

"Thank you, sir." Nathanael spoke up, trying to make sure that he didn't sound rude in any way. He wanted to do his best to be the best fake boyfriend that Adrienne could want and may be one day, something would just shift between the two of them.

"I-I really like you too." Adrienne murmured, and Nathanael tried not to get too hopeful over what exactly those words could mean.

* * *

The media was starting to say that Nathanael and Adrienne's relationship was practically non-existent and that they weren't close at all when all that they did were go on dates and hold hands. It was all quite stupid, because Nathanael didn't just hold hands with all of his friends, and he was never sure if he was allowed to cross that threshold and just kiss her.

They had gotten closer anyway, close enough to now use nicknames when talking to each other, and close enough to have their own inside jokes and to always seem to just know when to send the first text of the day.

Nathanael hadn't admitted that he'd set an alarm for earlier on days that he knew that she had photoshoots, so that he'd wake up early enough to see her text right as it arrived and to text her back with something equally sweet or funny or whatever it was that she sent him that morning. Some times when she was bored and looking for a good laugh, she strolled through memes and sent him several which meant that he should send her some that he'd collected a while ago and assure her that he was laughing at the memes that she sent.

Nathanael didn't know every meme though he did know a few that she sent him and some that he still laughed at no matter how many times that he read them. Sometimes it was just a matter of getting to the point where he actually would laugh at them.

When she felt a bit on the lonely side or perhaps more affectionate, she sent sweeter messages which gave him an excuse to be just as sweet back and remarkably honest with her though she probably didn't believe that all of those messages from him were completely honest.

Sometimes it was just a simple good morning to tell him that she was up and would talk whenever she had time to that day, so he'd respond in kind and let her know that he could. They even sometimes called each other on the phone and some of those conversations ran a little longer as they shared jokes and funny stories and just basked in the other's presence even though a phone or two separated them from each other.

"I think we should kiss or something." Adrienne said out of the blue at one of the restaurants that she'd taken him out on to dates at befoer, "With how the media is lately."

"They'd love that." Nathanael admitted, catching himself when he realized that he'd been leaning over towards her from across the table when she'd told him that she was pretty sure that they should kiss. He really did want to kiss her.

"They would." Adrienne murmured softly, "Should we do it now?"

"Sure." Nathanael gulped, having never done this before, but he dutifully leaned across the table and reach down to gently kiss her with a loving brush of his lips against hers that may have only lasted a second but sent his heart off racing anyway.

"Wow." Adrienne murmured, and Nathanael couldn't help but silently agree with her statement. Even though it wasn't much and didn't feel like a whole symphony was playing when they'd kissed, Nathanael's lips still tingled from the short kiss, and his mind was racing, trying to memorize every moment of the one second kiss.

It shouldn't have been much, but it both left Nathanael nervous for their fake relationship and excited for it. Hopefully, his heart wouldn't be dragged through the mud and he wouldn't fall for her too rapidly to be normal even though he was already halfway there before they started dating.

His attempts at moving on to Cat Noir hadn't lasted nearly as long as his ever blossoming feelings for Adrienne that never seemed to fade, even now, when it was only as real as they could act like it was.

Adrienne still managed to look so stunned and absolutely adorable after their tiny kiss as her fingers came to finally rest over her lips as her cheeks flushed pink and as she held onto what strength of will that she could.

Nathanael just wished that he wasn't fighting the insane urge to kiss her again; yeah, his feelings probably hadn't faded as much as he thought they had before then, and he now knew that this fake relationship would be much harder than he'd ever expected it to be.


	14. Reincarnation

The world felt just hazy enough that he wondered if he really had known her before, not in a romantic, first time meeting your soulmate kind of way, just in a way that made it make sense for how well they fit together. Alix was his puzzle piece and while that was said with no romantic connotation whatsoever, he could understand why someone might think that.

Alix's smile was so sure, so familiar, that he felt like he had to have known her before as she linked arms with him and pulled him along on his 'new' skates that she'd gotten for him to give him skating lessons.

"Try moving your legs like this, and don't think of it as some new kind of footwear. Think of it like they're another part of you." Alix smiled and just seeing that smile on her face, put a part of him at ease while still making him nervous over exactly how to do this.

"You got it! See?" Alix let go of his arm and skated away though not far away, and Nathanael smiled back up at her. May be it just took a little bit of practice.

* * *

"Hey. What will they think of us?" Alix lay next to his side and yet nothing tempted either one as far as the other was concerned.

"That we're friends?" Nathanael asked, soft, almost tentative in its own way.

"Yeah." She sighed, "I'm supposed to get married soon. Do you think that he'll let me see you?" Alix snuggled closely, "It's not an affair or anything, just a friend spending time with another friend."

"He probably won't." Nathanael muttered sadly.

"Mom and Dad said that I should have just married you, but I can't imagine that." Alix pressed against his side, "Don't let this be our last time like this."  
"There's only so much that I can do. The lady that I've been courting, she seems more interested." Nathanael admitted, "I wouldn't want her to think anything amiss even though it really isn't."

"I know. You've been in love with her for forever. That's good to hear though." Alix sat up.

"I just hope that your marriage is fine." Nathanael muttered, "I have hope for mine."  
Alix smiled, "Mom and Dad like him, so we'll see. He probably will be nice to me. Don't worry. I'm strong."

"Don't cause any issues, yourself." Nathanael muttered, "He probably won't be happy to just race you or want to just hang out like you do."

"Most aren't. Don't worry, this woman is strong." Alix stretched, "We'll have to go home before they start a scandal, you know?"

"Yeah, they'll think that we're kissing or something." Nathanael sighed, "We better go."

Alix smiled though it was tinted a little bit sad.

* * *

'I had the weirdest dream last night.' Nathanael typed out and sent his best friend's way.

'Me too. I was getting married, but we were friends and weren't supposed to be. Like, they thought that we were a couple since you're a boy, and I'm a girl.' Alix typed back.

'I had that same dream.' He responded, 'I was marrying Marinette.'

'That's who it was? Good for you. Want to try out the skates again today?' Alix typed and like that, it became just one weird conversation out of the many that they'd had before.

'It was.' Nathanael smiled, 'I do.'

* * *

"Do you think that we'll ever see each other again?" It was surreal to see her in a wedding gown, long and gorgeous, taking up all of her small frame and making her seem as if she could fill up the room with height and the hips that many women seemed to chase after.

"I don't know." Nathanael couldn't help but stare, just seeing the white fabric run along her frame, and he remembered that she really was a woman now, that she wasn't merely the little girl that he'd became friends with, the one that he'd have to run after and try to beat in a race as if they were both boys.

Alix had never seemed more feminine than right now, and that thought scared him in a way as if the woman that he'd come to know as his best friend, was someone completely new now as she prepared to embark on a marriage that might not be easy.

"Alix, dear, you'll have to get going. He can't wait all day especially when you're talking to another man." Her mother scolded, and Alix looked so downright upset at the thought that Nathanael wanted to hug her though he knew much better.

"I'm coming, Mom." She sighed, "I was just saying 'hello' to a friend of mine."

Nathanael still wasn't sure how he'd managed to witness his best friend since childhood marry anyone, let alone someone that neither of them had ever known before.

'Marc' seemed nice at the very least even though Alix still didn't look happy; she hadn't cared at all who her parents had her marry as she'd stated before to Nathanael that there was no man that she ever wanted to marry.

Nathanael pretended that it didn't feel so weird and out of his element to watch his best friend, who had never really seemed that interested in marriage, get married. She'd told him once that she never wanted to destroy his reputation or stop his family in its tracks by never having heirs for him, so they couldn't get married.

He'd never ever asked her what she meant, and now, it seemed like the absolute worst time to ask her.

* * *

"I had the strangest dream that I'd married Marc." Alix complained as she leaned against Nathanael, "He's not awful by any means, but I can't imagine that."

Nathanael smiled, "He'd make you a good husband. He's a pretty good listener and won't try to make you into something that you're not." He admitted easily enough.

"That's true, but dreams better not be a product of your deepest desires. Marc would make someone else a better husband than me. He'll find someone one day." Alix admitted, "He's too nice to not find the perfect person for him."

"Do you think that they're memories?" Nathanael asked, a little confused and more than a little curious.

"Like past lives?" Alix asked, "I guess I can kind of see that. It seemed like the continuation of my-our dreams about a month back."

"It did. I'd never really seen you in a dress before, especially not one that looked like that. You looked so different." Nathanael muttered, half embarrassed as the words came tumbling out.

"I am a woman." Alix chuckled as she pressed against Nathanael, "It didn't make you feel any differently about me, right?"

"No. I don't have a crush on you or anything like that though you are beautiful." Nathanael muttered, "It felt like a sudden realization that you were more than just the kid that I'd become friends with."

"That makes sense. I wish that we were siblings in a past life and not just friends." Alix answered, "It would make so much sense."

"It would. I'm glad that people don't question our friendship like that anymore." She smiled, "Friendships like this aren't that odd."  
"Not anymore." Alix's smile remained just as strong if not stronger than before, and though some people wondered a bit about friendships like theirs that were completely platonic, and yet it wasn't anything like back in the day when things might have seemed a bit scandalous.

"Yeah." Nathanael admitted as he relaxed completely by her side.

* * *

It felt weird to gaze up at her childhood friend that she hadn't seen for many months wearing a tux that somehow just made him seem so much taller and so much more grownup. His red tie didn't make it seem any more normal either.

Marinette looked stunning, and Alix was just kind of happy for her friend as he'd had a crush on Marinette for forever or so it seemed. She, however, was just glad that Marc was a nice man though a little quiet and more in his head or writing fast down on paper than with her at times.

It gave her an excuse for not having heirs yet or almost having any; his attention easily enough seemed lost, and yet her attention had never really been on anyone. Alix would have gladly stayed single forever and just hung out with Nathanael as much as she could.

She'd boldly claim if anyone asked her and no one ever did that she just wasn't the marrying sort. Alix just would rather do other things or just stay the way that she'd always been, but she wasn't going to throw a fit or complain or anything since she did get a nice husband who was more than a little distracted.

She loved a good competition, felt comfortable as to who she is, and yet she'd never really fallen for anyone. Alix would try to treat Marc right as he really did deserve that though she'd rather just be known as Nathanael's friend and not as anyone's wife.

For her family's sake, Alix would be a good wife and not complain, and for Marc's sake, she'll try to love him somewhere near as much as Nathanael obviously loved Marinette.

* * *

"Do you think that I just didn't like people that way?" Alix asked as she snuggled up by Nathanael's side, "I didn't seem to really want to be married at all to anyone."

"May be..?" Nathanael muttered, "How do you think you thought of it?"

"As something dull or caught up in something that I didn't want." Alix sighed, "It's weird since I actually get that, and they don't feel like dreams anymore. They feel more like stories or real life, and I wake up wondering if Marc's awake or if I have to go make breakfast or something. It's weird."

"That makes sense. I just felt so happy on my wedding day." Nathanael smiled something truly wide and beautiful, and Alix was so happy for her best friend during this life and apparently a previous one too. Their souls must have really been best friends for it to carry over like this.

"You deserve that kind of happiness." Alix smiled.

"Do you think you'll marry someone in this life too?" Nathanael asked, and Alix could practically see the hearts in his eyes as he imagined marrying Marinette again.

"Possibly. Not Marc. I think he likes someone else anyway." Alix shrugged, "Kim would be too much to be married to, but may be Adrien if he'd ever see me as dating material."

"You and Adrien, huh?" Nathanael smiled, "I can see that. He might just be good for you, calm as he can be at times."

"He has a wild side." Alix teased, "You just haven't seen it yet."

"Sure." Nathanael drawled, and Alix chuckled as she shoved him lightly.

"So wedding bells in your future, Mr. Courter?" Alix teased as she got up, "It worked well for you in a past life."

"That it did." Nathanael smiled that dopey smile again, and Alix bit back a laugh at just how cute and obviously awestruck it was, "I sure hope so."

"Then I hope that she gets it right this time too." Alix stated, "I'll jump off the Adrinette Train as Alya calls it. Want me to call it something else?"

"Adrinette?" Nathanael asked, all wide eyed and confused.

"It's a ship name or so Alya says." Alix shrugged, "I'm kind of feeling like some Adrix might be kind of nice."

"You and Adrien?" Nathanael asked softly, "It would be, wouldn't it?"

Alix giggled a little, feeling free, "Yeah. I bet Alya would call you two, Nathanette if she shipped it. Your name first followed by her name."

"So who came up with Adrix?" Nathanael asked with a half-sly, half-amused smile.

"Me, of course. It's a bit rougher around the edges like we would be." She smirked, "You can't take that away from me."  
"Of course, I can't. Miss Writer's Wife." He teased.

"Don't. It was an arranged marriage." She laughed, "I'll bet that I can get to the living room faster than you." It was a nice distraction and one that she wasn't afraid of rushing off first for and leaving Nathanael in the dust.

With every life, they'd probably be best friends, and just may be one day, they'll figure out their a bit mix-matched love lives. Alix didn't mind that she didn't have a romantic soulmate, having a best friend one just felt way better as long as it was Nathanael and they had this much at least.


	15. Life Swap

Alya's desk was cluttered as could be with pages of articles circled in for research or even her own pages of reporting circled as she scanned through any and all of the mess to make sure that her hypotheses were correct or that the research added up completely. It didn't mean at all that it was dull work as she'd just turn on some rock music and focus, feeling the energy thrum through her veins and not minding at all as she either got carried away by the music or swept away with research and writing.

She'd learned her slew of music from singing to guitar to even drums on a whim, and yet nothing stuck like typing on her old computer or writing away on paper. Her mother and brother had even put the old printer in her room as she used it more than anyone else in the house.

Alya smiled as she wrote down a particular theory about Ladybug and Cat Noir that she'd research later and try to either debunk or solve. Surely, their powers went this way or that way. She wasn't quite sure, but excitement bubbled forth within her anyway.

* * *

Juleka sighed as she started on her homework; it was a bit later than she'd set out to work on it, but the twins had practically crawled onto her lap earlier and asked her to read them some poems. It was always a lot of work to carefully flip through her books of poems that she'd written and find one that wasn't 'too' depressing to read to Etta and Ella.

They loved it though, and Juleka couldn't regret spending time with them even when they drove her up a wall sometimes. With Mom and Dad busy at their respective jobs so much, Juleka found herself almost always watching the twins if Mom had to work late, because suddenly the hotel was booming and so many people were hungry or her dad was still waiting on the vet to arrive since the zoo's panther was sick, again.

It wasn't at all unusual, and Juleka had seen her share of cartoons, both lighthearted and silly or sometimes even more serious than she'd expect. She'd learned how to cook some of their favorite recipes from Mom's cookbook since she and the twins were much younger, and Juleka found herself humming along to music on the radio while cooking or just the theme songs to the twins' favorite shows.

She didn't mind the chaotic life, not too much anyway, as she turned her attention back to her school essay before she heard a tired and sad voice call to her.

"Juleka? Are you still up?" Etta was in the doorway, looking worn out, and absolutely exhausted and yet unhappy, and so Juleka figured that her French essay could wait a few more minutes.

"Yeah, I am." She spoke up and watched as her younger sister came further into the room and crawled on her lap.

"I had a bad dream again. That wicked sea monster from that one movie with the big boat was eating Ella, and y-you couldn't stop it in time." The tears filled up Etta's eyes like a dam that was just so close to bursting as she pressed her head against Juleka's collarbone, trying to fight the tears and appear strong for her big sister.

"Oh," Juleka murmured, "Don't worry. Ella's fine, and there's no wicked sea monster here." She saw her own self reflected in her little sister's eyes as if Juleka was that young again even though she'd often crawled into Mom and Dad's bed or found herself looking for a pencil and flicking on her lamp in her room and writing until her hand went numb and her mind went number than her hand. Juleka had often felt alone with only her writing to comfort her even though she knew better. Her parents still loved her even when they worked late or even when she'd learned to be a good, big sister when her parents were still working.

She'd often felt more overwhelmed than she could at first as if all of her nightmares, sleepless nights, the beginning of a semi-common struggle with insomnia, and pressing insecurities and pressure just built up and made her feel so small.

"A-Are you sure? Mommy and Daddy haven't been home to check and fight them off." Etta pressed against her side, insistent now that she needed some kind of comfort like a hug that she'd deny wanting in the morning. She wanted to grow up so bad and yet sometimes it was easy for her to forget that she still needed people in her life.

"I'm sure." Juleka answered as she struggled to find the right words, "Sea monsters don't like dark houses. There's no water for them to hide in."

"Yeah, there isn't." Etta calmed down a little bit more in her big sister's arms, "What about land monsters that look like sea monsters?"

"They're scared of the dark." Juleka answered simply, "And since it's dark in your bedroom at night, they won't come close."  
"Oh, okay." Etta calmed down just a little bit more, "What are you working on?"

"Just an essay for French. Do you want to help?" Juleka asked, hoping that may be it would tire them both out and help Etta feel a bit more comfortable.

"S-Sure." Etta answered as she watched her big sister, "It isn't hard, is it?"

"It's just a persuasive essay." Juleka told her, "It will be easy."

* * *

"Luka, it's time to eat." Alya grumbled before she raised her voice and repeated herself rather than just walking in and tapping him on the arm or something. He should have known that it was dinner about this time in Alya's opinion even though he hadn't just spent the past half hour or so in the kitchen with their mother making dinner.

Alya's defense though was that it had been a peaceful day with no Akumas, and that she hadn't had anything better to do anyway.

"Thanks." He muttered as he got up, and Alya shook her head. She was hungry, and now could find a million other things to do than go make sure that her older brother came to dinner. Alya could check if Ladybug and Cat Noir started their patrols early which sometimes happened or she could work on debunking a theory for the LadyBlog and a new portion of it that she'd decided to invest her time into, dedicated to that sort of thing or she could write and research Miraculous which hardly turned up anything interesting again.

"No problem." Alya muttered as she led the way and found her way back to the kitchen to eat dinner and then turn her attention back to the Blog afterward. There was only so much left for her to do.

* * *

"How'd you two sleep?" Juleka asked as she quickly fixed them up a breakfast, glad that they still had plenty of time for her to walk them to school and make it to class on time as well.

"Good." Etta muttered, not saying anything else though Juleka had never expected her to anyway.

"I had a dream that we were all sitting around and listening to your poems, and you had a big crowd listening too." Ella murmured, and in that moment, Juleka could definitely tell that she was the morning bird out of the three of them as Juleka still felt a bit tired and would rather sleep in than head off to school though she'd gotten used to the early morning hours for school over the years.

"That sounds wonderful." Etta beamed, perking up almost instantly, "Do you remember any of the poems?"

And it was almost normal, sort of how people could get her two sisters confused with each other, though Juleka hadn't had that problem since they were babies. She'd had years to figure it out, and it never felt like it took that long to get down.


	16. Neighbors

Living out on your own is not supposed to be this difficult, now, is it? Chloe sighed as she stared at the coffee pot that just quit working this afternoon and wondered if relying on Daddy's money wouldn't be too bad to do now.

Pollen's motto of self improvement and the fact that Chloe did want to be the one to make a name for herself and not just as the mayor's daughter after years of considering that her major avhievement felt like breaking and just wasn't sure what to do.

"May be someone can help you out a little?" Pollen asked as she sat down on Chloe's shoulder, "Someone nearby should know what to do."  
Chloe sighed as she mustered up the courage to actually go ask for help, and after trying to be independent for probably the first time ever in her life, it just wasn't working. She'd hardly ever dreamed of the day growing up where she didn't hire servants to take care of her or have her daddy in the hotel or close at hand to help her out. He'd still probably drop everything to help his 'baby girl,' but after being homeschooled her whole life for the most part and learning all of the lessons taught by that kind of life without any first hand experience in most things 'normal' or at least the types of things that many probably learned from an early age, she felt undeniably crippled in the means of taking care of herself.

She'd stumbled through her first homecooked meal, and ate mostly blackened food that week other than when her belly hurt and the recipes seemed so confusing that she'd ended up calling take out, because it was quicker and giving a large, tired, relieved tip to the delivery person that brought that food. Eventually, she'd found a site online that explained in detail everything that she'd needed to know about cooking, and she'd gotten better.

Chloe was nowhere near star chef level, but the fact that she could cook any meal without it tasting just off somehow or being burnt felt like a success to her. She grumbled under her breath as she finally left her apartment to knock on a door for help, unsure of exactly who to ask, or just how she'd manage to get through this.

"Coming!" A woman called as she finally answered the door, and Chloe found herself doing a double take. The woman had bright red-orange hair, a curious smile that seemed more a permanent part of her face than anything else, and sophisticated glasses right above her nose. She looked two parts intelligent and one part kind of confident, like over the years she'd found herself. "Do you need sugar?" It felt like a silly question in hindsight, but at the moment, it just left Chloe a little more worn out and a little bit confused.

"No...?" Chloe muttered, "I was just hoping that you knew how to fix my coffeepot or what exactly is wrong with it?"

"Oh, sure, I'll help." She smiled as she left her house, and Chloe finally realized that her neighbor was dressed way more casually than she'd expected at first. The woman wore an oversized T-shirt with an obscure band name on it, and a casual pair of pants like she'd changed from a tough day at work and was just relaxing for the moment.

"I'm Chloe." No last names meant not dealing with someone connecting the dots and knowing her somehow from a time before she set herself out on the self improvement plan that Pollen backed her up on. More people knew the old her that she wished that they did.

"I'm Sabrina, Raincomprix, actually." Her neighbor murmured distracted, and Chloe distantly remembered a cop that she'd seen quite a few times before.

"Like the police officer?" She asked even though she probably shouldn't have.

"Yeah, he's my dad." Sabrina paused, "If you mean Roger Raincomprix, that is."

"I did." Chloe admitted, hoping that she wouldn't embarrass herself once Sabrina saw the coffeepot.

"He's a good man." Sabrina answered with a smile, "A little tough on crime at times, but a good father anyway. I learned really quick not to get on the bad side of the law or my dad." She smiled and just the hint of a laugh that spilled from her mouth relieved Chloe and reminded her to not jump to conclusions.

"That's good." Chloe wasn't entirely sure what to say to all that or if she'd be able to find the words for it, but she'd let it go as is.

Sabrina was checking the coffeepot before she knew it, "Oh, the same thing just happened to mine a month ago. Here, do this next time." She answered as she carefully shown Chloe exactly what to fix it. "It will work good as new now." Sabrina beamed.

"Thank you very much." Chloe spoke up.

"Is something else the matter?" Sabrina paused, and Chloe realized that she hadn't sounded grateful at all. She'd thought that she'd gotten better at that, but apparently not.

"No, no." Chloe sighed, "It's just a lot to get used to, having my own place."  
"You do look close to my age." Sabrina muttered as an after thought, "It gets easier in time, trust me. One day though, it seems like the coffee pot's on the fritz, and the next day, your cookies burn in the oven and the day after that, your boss is super mad at you, but it gets easier. It's life testing you anyway, and once you've passed, it gets a whole lot easier." Sabrina paused before she tacked on, "Things still go wrong, but it's not as bad after that."

"It is?" Chloe asked as she watched the woman standing not too far away shrug her shoulders.

"Yeah, it takes a lot of practice to make the bad things not seem so bad." She smiled.

"Is it anything like what you expected?" Chloe asked as she watched her neighbor and wondered if she could really learn more from her.

"Oh, no, not when I was young anyway or younger. When I was a kid, I thought that I'd go into fashion even though I'm not good at designing anything or was never pretty enough to be a model." She admitted, "I'm a Geographer now, and I actually like that a lot though some days really are harder than others. I've always just enjoyed thinking over things like population patterns, location, cultures, and even studying maps. It's a lot of fun for me." She smiled.

"What about your own place?" Chloe asked, deciding that hearing about career change ups really wouldn't help her out any. Besides, Chloe had wanted to be mayor or not have a job when she was younger, and then discovered a need to prove herself and change her ways a bit more, so she'd turned things around and through a love of politics, became a lawyer. Chloe already liked it a lot more than she liked the pressure of rising up on the polls.

"Well," Sabrina paused, "I guess that I thought it would be easier. I always wanted a house, just outside of the city, and a few kids and a nice husband. I'm still a little young for that and more than a bit single, so that might take some time."  
Chloe smiled at the thought. She always wanted a looming and impressive mansion and a barrage of servants to come home to that would attend to her every need. Chloe still wanted that, but she also wanted to be a little better, a little more than what she was before. It felt impossible from the get go, but Pollen was there for her and so was Adrien and that's what mattered.

"You might get that yet." She paused when she'd realized that she'd been slipping into her Queen Bee voice: the stubborn defender of Paris that tried to be encouraging even though it often fell out sounding a little rougher around the edges than she meant it to.

"Thank you." Sabrina told her 'bye' soon after, and Chloe had never really expected a friendship to form or to go to her for help ever again.

* * *

"Do you have sugar?" Sabrina asked from outside her door, covered in flour and dough, "I ran out, and I don't want to leave my baking long enough to run to the store." She explained.

"Yeah, sure." Chloe went inside and grabbed the sugar that Adrien had insisted that she buy one day for baking, and after a couple batches of not right sugar cookies, she hadn't really touched it again.

"Thank you so much." Sabrina smiled so widely and enthusiastically up at her, "How about you come over for cookies? I'm making extra. Some are for work as one of my coworker's birthday is tomorrow, and some are to eat at home."

"That's very nice of you, but..." Chloe fell into that trap of that familiar sentence of hers, always half sarcastic and just a little bit broken, but she caved under the hopeful eyes of the woman that was standing before her, "Fine, I'll try some cookies."

Sabrina beamed and invited her in, and it really did look a lot like Chloe's apartment with a bit more splashes of color. A couple maps lined the walls and posters from different kinds of shows and framed pictures of what had to be Sabrina's family and close friends.

"It's as homey as I could make it." Sabrina explained, "I used to be so shy in school or... I didn't have many friends. On my last few years before graduating, I got a lot more confident or worked on it some, and university made me the woman that I am today. I wasn't judged near as much, and I felt like I kind of fit in, in a way. I'm a lot better off since then now."

"It's nice." Chloe wasn't sure if she liked it or not or if any other word fit that was in her vocabulary; it was just so different from her place.

"Thank you." Sabrina murmured, genuinely, "It's how I keep my family and friends close on my mind and how I express myself." She paused, looking a little worried, "I'm sorry if that sounded really weird."

She hadn't become anywhere near close to the kind of confidence that Chloe had often worn on her sleeves, and yet Chloe felt the need to comfort her somehow. "It's fine, really. It's pretty normal."

"Okay," Sabrina smiled at her, "I just didn't want to sound weird before we really know each other since we're neighbors and might see each other a lot."

"It's fine. I understand." Chloe wasn't sure that she did though as she'd always lived in a penthouse suite of a hotel that her father owned until she got this small apartment room. 'How did people treat their neighbors anyway? Was it the same as those movies made it seem?'

"That's good. Do you want to come over and bake sometime?" Sabrina asked, and in a way, Chloe felt compelled to just try and see how this friendship really would work. May be a friend will help her along as far as self improvement went. Chloe wasn't above trying anymore; a lot had changed since her childhood after all.

Every neighbor was different, but already, a friendship was brewing between the two women that would one day leave both of them relieved to have found each other and become neighbors.


	17. Sidekick

Some days, it was easy to wonder exactly how she'd gotten such a stubborn sidekick, who insisted that she wanted to help, and yet Sabrina wasn't super confident in the Akuma battles that she rushed into to help out. She had to be the pickiest sidekick of all time since Queen Bee never saw her dive in to help out any of the other superheroes, just her.

It would be flattering to have her own sidekick, out of all the heroes, if she wasn't worried whenever her friend rushed into battle, and only recently, had she even considered that she wasn't the best kind of friend to have in the world. It was more than a struggle to become a better friend as with every success came another failure or obstacle.

Queen Bee though had a different image to live up to, one that was a bit more positive, and so she found it easier to talk to her sidekick than she did as her civilian self even though Sabrina's poor disguises weren't fooling anyone that really did know her.

"Hey, Lurker." She spoke up, remembering one of the nicknames that seemed to stick to her civilian sidekick so very easily, "You can go home now. Hawkmoth's likely to just give up for the day." After one terribly long Akuma fight that Queen Bee had to fight next to Rena Rouge as well as the two main superheroes and had 'Lurker' right up there with her, saving her if need be, she was exhausted.

"You'll be fine?" It was the most hopeful, puppy dog look that someone could manage in a ridiculous superhero costume, and Queen Bee once again felt kind of grateful for this friend of hers whether she knew that she was helping Chloe out or not all this time.

"Completely fine. The Akuma's defeated, and you should probably sleep." Queen Bee told her, imagining all of those bruises on Sabrina that she'd have to doublecheck later to see if the Miraculous Cure healed them or if the ladybugs hadn't noticed. Let alone, when Sabrina dove for her, rolling her out of harm's way in the knick of time.

It still didn't seem possible that her albeit nerdy friend was able to act like even a sidekick during an Akuma fight. It certainly tested her own strength of will, and yet sometimes gave Queen Bee the confidence and backup that she needed to do well.

* * *

"Why do you have a civilian sidekick again?" Rena Rouge asked on a patrol that they'd been given free reign to go on since Ladybug and Cat Noir were too busy to patrol that night.

"Because I couldn't shake her." Queen Bee shrugged, not quite realizing how Rena would interpret that statement.

"A superhero couldn't get a civilian to stop following her around?" Rena asked, and Queen Bee wondered why she couldn't have had Sabrina as a partner in fighting crime and not just a sidekick. It certainly would have made situations like this easier.

"No, she's followed me around since pretty much day one, and she follows no one else around like that." Chloe sighed, "Besides, Ladybug still can't shake off that LadyBlogger that well."

"She's fast to keep up with the action." The fox Miraculous holder shrugged, "Don't try to tell me that she isn't."

"She isn't." Was the immediate retort. Queen Bee and Rena Rouge had never really gotten anywhere near as along as they were supposed to.

Rena grumbled under her breath, and when the night ended with a long argument on patrol that no one surrendered during, they both went home still fuming angry.

* * *

"Why does no one else have sidekicks too?" Sabrina asked one day as she leaned closer to Chloe, "Do you have any idea?"  
"Queen Bee's the best superhero." That puffed up bravado and confidence were really hard to let go of, "Other than Ladybug, and Cat Noir's gotten a bit 'cooler' lately. Just not Rena Rouge, I'll be so angry if my least favorite superhero gets a sidekick after Queen Bee has her own."

Chloe paused shortly after, "You don't still have bruises, right?"

"I'm fine. They were healed during the Miraculous Cure. It's nothing much." Sabrina admitted before the look on her face switched to a more thoughtful one.  
"You know," Sabrina asked, "I shouldn't tell you this, but I've known you were Queen Bee since the day that you first shown up."

"What? How?" Chloe stared, wide eyed, and open mouthed at her sidekick in fighting crime.

"I saw Cat Noir give you your Miraculous." Sabrina admitted with a bowed head, "I'm sorry."

"I've known you were 'Lurker' or my sidekick since day one too. You don't look that different in those costumes, and don't be." Chloe answered as she leaned back against Sabrina's bed and just wondered how things had came to sound so simple and yet were much, much harder in reality.

"I knew that." Sabrina muttered, "I just didn't want you to feel like you had to tell me who you are since it's supposed to be a secret."

* * *

Queen Bee was figuring this whole sidekick thing out with Lurker everyday, it seemed like between strategizing plans, and important talks over how to fight together. Every now and again, she was allowed to jump into an Akuma battle, and with every battle, they got much more in sync.

She wasn't sure what it was about having the secret identity talk that made things seem much easier and fall into better perspective. Sabrina helped out Queen Bee since she knew that was her best friend, and she didn't want to see her hurt at all. She'd rather take the pain that let Chloe absorb any of it, no matter what Queen Bee told her about how much the suit protected her.

Some days, Chloe wondered if it would just be easier to hand Sabrina her Miraculous and try to be her sidekick. Pride, her own experience, and the fact that Cat Noir had given it specifically to her as well as how Pollen was with her, kept her from giving it up for even a day to see how Sabrina handled it.

It still felt like it's own unique support and hidden strength of Chloe's versus the fact that none of the other superheroes in their group had a sidekick. She still wasn't sure why, because she knew Sabrina's reasons, and it made sense that others would care for them just as much. The only idea that bounced through her head there was that no one else knew any of the superheroes' identities or no one knew that they could jump in and be a sidekick.

Her last point was easier and easier to debunk the longer that Sabrina worked with her though that question kept on rattling, rattling, and rattling through her head. Eventually, she might just ask it even though having sidekicks was extremely unsafe for the sidekick and a risky thing for anyone to jump in right away to do.

Queen Bee was really grateful for her sidekick whether that clearly showed or whether anyone realized just how much Sabrina's unwavering support meant to her overall.


	18. Circus

With every spin and every flip, she had his head spinning as she gracefully landed on the mat and smiled up at the audience. She was no amateur, and he knew that. Well, everyone that saw her perform knew that, and so did many that hadn't even seen her.

Adrien took a deep breath as he left and appeared before crowds of hundreds, easily commanding lions and elephants to follow his command, and he was perhaps the gentlest lion tamer that could have been hired here. As the animals followed his commands, the audience held their breath, half expecting him to be trampled or eaten alive.

He shook his head though when he was far out of sight as the night wound down; no one ever seemed just as aware of how experienced they had to be before they ever stepped on that stage.

Adrien knew as he'd learned this business from his father, the ringleader, and the one who was successful enough at it to host many circus events all throughout the year. Gabriel Agreste had been an animal tamer, and while his methods were harsher than Adrien's had ever been, he'd learned the business and the tricks and turns of it from his father.

He'd one day inherit the circus after all, and yet like his father, he'd been absolutely caught up in the trapeze artist, those that flipped, and caught themselves, that swung high, high, high above the audience and yet had such elegant grace that nothing ever seemed to hold them back. They were truly the fearless ones as Adrien would argue, and he'd spent so many years admiring them from his mother before she died to the two women that ran it lately, Marinette and Alya.

Alya managed to catch his eye more times than he could count as her darker skin seemed to glow and shine under the lights within the tent, and as she sent out just sassy enough smiles and flirty enough winks that anyone could get lost in her confidence as she moved and flipped and still managed to swing so high above everyone. Marinette was just as talented, and yet Adrien's eyes always ran back to Alya as every flip and every move seemed so impressive and yet so dangerous.

* * *

"So the show went well?" Alya asked as she watched him feed the animals and make sure that everything was fine as he'd bring them back home soon enough to live in their large fenced in areas that he'd started insisting on when he was three even though usually the animals didn't have nearly that much leg room to run around and stretch and relax. Adrien just wanted them to be well for every performance as well as every second of their life.

He'd spent his childhood sneaking away to play with the animals and watching over them, and he sometimes felt like he knew them better than he did the people that his father had hired.

"It went really well, Father says." Adrien agreed as he turned his gaze to Alya that still shone in her sparkling performing outfit that highlighted the natural tan of her skin, a color that Adrien was finding more entrancing by the day it seemed like though was nothing compared to her personality and that shocking array of confidence.

"That's good to hear." Alya smiled at him and the casual innocence of it warmed his heart; there was no persona to Alya during the quiet moments like this when she wasn't caught up on performing and living it up on the stage. She'd never miss a chance to rise up and have a bit of fun and push fate a little harder than it may be needed pushed.

"Yeah." Adrien murmured as he finally finished feeding the animals, "Two more days, and then we're heading back home for a couple of weeks."

Alya rolled her eyes, "We don't need that long of a vacation. I start missing it when we have so long off."  
"You'll need to rest up and relax sometime." Adrien told her though he couldn't help the smile on his face as he looked up at her, caught up in the fire that was Alya Cesaire, a woman that couldn't be defined by anything close to normal words.

"I know. Most people say that, but I've never been a most people kind of woman." Alya shrugged, "You better rest up though, those animals can be quite dangerous if you aren't watching them."

"I'm fine." Adrien was still smiling even when Alya told him goodnight and headed off to her own house. He still had no idea how they'd found her and had been allowed to have her in their circus at all.

* * *

Alya would tell anyone that she wasn't that surprised by anyone's confidence to stand before a lion or an elephant and tell them what to do like they were training puppies, and yet she knew that was a lie within itself. She didn't want to like things like that since that had been her father's job at an old circus that he worked for before he died a few years ago.

At one point, as a little girl, she had wanted to be like him, and had set out to stand before animals, form that connection, and tell them what to do with no fear. She'd been scared out of her wits, and as of yet, wasn't sure how someone can just trust their safety to something or someone else.

If it was a sometimes dangerous animal, it baffled her completely, and yet she knew full well that what she did wasn't particularly easy for many people either. She'd discovered that it was easier to trust herself, to know just where to put her hands and her feet, just how to turn and flip. She had circus in her blood, and she wasn't afraid to love that much of it.

To be so high up, she didn't trust the air to cushion her fall. She trusted herself to not fall. Alya had never figured out just how to trust a large animal to not just lose it one day and tear into you, and so she'd watch with awe as after she'd done her tricks, was sweaty from the workout, and felt just the beginning of sore muscles, awe lined up within her.

Adrien always seemed so confident, so brave, and yet he wasn't violent with that authority and control. The animals had never been the selling point for her or even what led her awe, but what always captured her attention was the lion tamer, who led with such confidence that nothing could hurt him or touch him.

Adrien was the gentlest one that she'd ever met, and while the lions and elephants shortly after did impressive tricks, her eyes never left Adrien. Not even a small flinch, no fear, just calm composure and a gentle voice.

Alya had no idea how he was able to so easily command an elephant to do something or a lion, and yet she trusted him completely. If he was calm in the face of these massive, possibly dangerous animals, then he would be calm through almost anything. Admiration blended with romantic feelings every single time, and she was positive that something within him told her that he'd be a great father, a great husband, a great boyfriend, and she fell just a little more in love with him all the time.

* * *

"Are we ones to flinch at risks?" Alya asked, leaning against Adrien's side after their last performance for two weeks, skin tingling where it pressed against him, still dressed up to perform, and yet she and Adrien did their best to ignore it for now.

"Certain ones still get to me." Adrien murmured, "I couldn't do what you do. I'm not sure I wouldn't break every bone in my body."

Alya smiled, "You'd be fine. I'd teach you." She leaned just a little bit further away to look him in his bright green eyes, "I couldn't do what you do, but I was hoping that you'd take a bit of a risk with me anyway."

"I'm not replacing Marinette on that trapeze with you." Adrien admitted, and Alya couldn't hold back her laugh.

"I'm not asking you to. I want to ask you something a bit different." Alya leaned against him once again, "Will you go out with me?" A circus had never really been a place for people to fall in love, and yet Alya hadn't never doubted that the wonder and awe could easily shift into something far more romantic.

"I-I will." Adrien's surprise and loving enthusiasm lit Alya's heart up, and she didn't mind as she reached out and hugged him close.

"And the trapeze artist fell in love with the lion tamer." Alya murmured in his ear though she really hoped that he didn't put two and two together as to how deep her feelings actually ran yet.

"It happened once before." Adrien murmured back.

"How? When?" Alya muttered, already lost, and wondering if some other woman had claimed Adrien's heart before she had a chance to meet him.

"My parents." Adrien said simply enough, and Alya could imagine that easily in her head.

"So you're a circus kid from both parents?" Alya murmured; a lot of people just up and joined the circus without growing up in it, but the few that did grow up in knew it better than perhaps anyone.

"I am." Adrien muttered.

"I'm only by one. My dad, he, was a lion tamer like you are." Alya answered, "Mom was never part of it though. The old circus that Dad was a part of shut down a while ago." She shrugged, and though there was an element of sadness, of longing for it, but more than likely for the people that she grew up around, performers of all kinds that probably caught her eye and imagination as a child.

"I'm sorry that they shut it down." Adrien answered her.

"If they hadn't of, I woudn't have met you, so in a way, I'm glad that they gave me the chance to meet you." Alya answered, "And everyone else here too. Life's about meeting new people and trying new things anyway."  
"You probably miss all of the old performers and staff there though." Adrien answered as he pressed closer against her side and tried to relax against her and not imagine how tough it must have felt on her for the circus to shut down, just when she was considering becoming a trapeze artist.

"They still visit sometimes." Alya spoke up, "It's for the best anyway. A lot of them wanted to retire and spend more time with their families."

Alya, right now, wasn't sure if she ever wanted to retire even though one day, she likely wouldn't be able to do the same kinds of stunts.

"I can imagine." Sometimes people did retire from the circus or circuses shut down and yet Adrien had grown up here, and it was getting harder with every passing day to imagine retiring or just leaving the circus.

He did have more than one reason to stay now though, and that reason could be summed up with just one name: Alya. Alya was his reason to stay to at least grow closer to her, fall more in love with her, and get to spend as much time with her as he could. Every performance night was a chance to watch Alya shine on stage and realize just how incredibly talented and confident that she was.

Every performance night was a chance to spend hours talking into the night if they had a chance and were still running on the high of the circus. Adrien couldn't have picked a better career for himself than that of the circus, and Alya, likely, felt the exact same way as love bloomed among the rush of every single show.


	19. Reverse Crush

Shyness flustered worse than any disease as Mylene stared down at her handwritten card, an idea that she thought might be a bit easier and yet fell short of reality when she couldn't yet give it to Ivan. It hurt that she felt trapped in this shyness as whenever she looked up and saw him jamming out to music or taking notes in class or even smiling, she didn't see the tough boy that many people seemed to naturally fear or move more cautiously around because of how he looked, she saw a sweet boy that somehow made her heart basically spin in her chest.

She groaned as she stared at the handwritten love letter before she felt Marinette by her side, "You like Ivan?" It wasn't mean, just kind of curious with a hint of sweetness mixed in. Mylene practically startled out of her skin as she hadn't heard Marinette approach, and her nerves weren't always the best.

"Yeah, I do." Mylene sighed as she tucked rainbow colored hair back behind her ear, "I don't think he likes me back."

"Why wouldn't he?" Marinette asked softly, and Mylene wondered if she was just naturally so sweet.

"It's just I never know what to say, but I thought may be writng a letter would be easier than saying it out loud, but I can't hand it to him, I get too nervous." Mylene fidgeted with the love letter, half wishing to just wallow in her sadness and insecurities, alone, and half longing for Marinette's support to help get her through this.

"How about trying in a way that is more like you than the old ways?" Marinette tried for, and Mylene smiled at the effort. It really was quite sweet of her.

"I like acting, but I don't know if confessing with acting would work?" Mylene admitted sadly.

"You could write a skit or reenact an old play to confess?" Marinette suggested softly, "It should be easier if you're trying to remember lines and not caught up in all that you are doing, right?" She tried to ease Mylene into a better sense of calm and self confidence.

"I don't know if it will work." She mumbled, but she put on a straight face and decided to try anyway, "I'll try."

"Good luck." Marinette answered before she waved and walked off and as Mylene was suddenly alone, she figured that it gave her time to think over just what to say.

* * *

"O, Romeo, I am but a shy actress, but my heart still beats for you." Mylene put on her biggest smile as she half rushed through those words from nerves, not sure if she remembered all of the words that she'd written to modify Romeo And Juliet, sort of just combining both of Marinette's ideas.

Ivan froze, and when she looked up, she saw wide eyed panic, and longed to just run away, her next lines lost somewhere in her mind.

"M-Mylene, those aren't the words to R-Romeo And Juliet?" Ivan tried, and as the words left his mouth, she felt her heart and world crumble, and just managed to run far enough away to feel her legs collapse underneath her by a park bench as her eyes filled up with tears, clutching her script close.

He hadn't understood or even considered that she had the biggest crush on him ever, and instead, he tried to correct her. Mylene's world seemed to tip over as she tried to find the energy to fight off these tears or the words to say that would make her heart not hurt so much.

"Masqued Woman, I can give you the power to let others feel your pain and guide your love straight." A voice whispered in her ear, and on instinct as her heart broke further, she agreed to his absolute power and control.

In Mylene's place stood a tall woman with a theater mask over her face, painted in vivid warm colors of yellow and red, almost blending towards the tip of the top into a bright orange, and over her head was a red jester hat with yellow balls on each tip. She stood tall in a red dress that ended in just a hint of a white bottom line.

She was no longer just Mylene Haprele, she'd became the Masqued Woman, bent on leaving others as masked and closed off as she now felt.

* * *

Ladybug hadn't been as aware of the fact that she'd be facing against Mylene as she fell against Cat Noir and tried to ignore the steady beating of her heart in her chest that seemed to pick up at a half beat at a time. She opened her eyes to look at her masked partner for the first time and did her best to ignore the beginning of ladybugs fluttering in her stomach. It was so feather light that she barely even noticed as they worked to untangle themselves.

Once they were free, they were off to find the first Akuma victim, and Ladybug found herself looking into a somewhat familiar face and unsure of just how she was going to do this. Her powers still felt like half a mystery, but she'd get through this somehow.

* * *

After managing to get Mylene to let go of the Akumatized script, they watched as the Akuma fluttered away. Ladybug had tried everything imaginable for Mylene to drop that piece of paper from throwing her yoyo at her, latching on after the fifth try, and trying to tug open her hand to trying to convince her to open her fist and reach out to hold Ivan's other hand.

None of it seemed to work all that well, and finally, Mylene reached for Ivan at the wrong time, and the paper slid out of her hand, and Cat Noir ripped it with his sharp claws. Ladybug felt relieved even after she turned around and quickly left to keep her identity a secret with Tikki, not really pausing to consider that may be she hadn't mastered her powers yet.

* * *

She knew something was wrong the instant that Tikki asked her about whether or not she'd purified the Akuma, the butterfly released from Mylene's script, and as she saw the report on the news of random civilians becoming the Masqued Woman.

Finding the real one would be a pain under the spread of hundreds of lookalikes, and Marinette wasn't sure that she was ready for this even after a mishap and a half of even trying to give her Miraculous to her newfound friend, Alya, not expecting at all to discover a reason that she'd never want to give it up in that battle.

* * *

Standing in front of Cat Noir and just seeing his honest trust in her and care for her, Ladybug was smitten as little ladybugs more than flooded her stomach as they took off all at once into a fluttering mess. Just, how was she supposed to handle Hawkmoth when instead of fear that gripped her, nerves had her completely in their grasp, but he did have confidence in her.

New fledgling feelings or not, her new superhero partner believed in her, and she wanted to prove that that believe was genuine as she turned and managed to push through confident enough to challenge Hawkmoth without backing down, and while her partner was clearly proud of her nothing shifted on his side during that moment.

* * *

"Hey, Ivan?" Marinette called out, remembering the pain that the shy girl in her class went through, "Here's what Mylene wrote for you or two things for you." She tentatively held the script and handed over the love letter that Mylene had written a little while ago as well.

"Okay." Ivan gave her a questioning look as he flipped open the letter first, and from the beginning of ruby red lighting up his cheeks and a sudden, almost shy smile, Marinette had hope, and as Ivan paused to read the script, he was nodding along. "It's actually really sweet of her." He muttered as if suddenly aware that his audience of one hadn't quite left yet.

"You should go talk to her." Marinette smiled, and Ivan nodded back. He could do this. He might have messed up the first time, but he still had this second chance to get things right even as nerves assualted his belly and as he worried that he wouldn't quite find the words to say to her. Fledgling feelings could be strong when they were just forming.

* * *

"Hey, Mylene?" Ivan asked as he looked over at the pretty girl with the rainbow in her heart that always without fail brought a smile to his face.

"Yeah?" As she glanced up, nerves appeared clear as day over her face.

"I read your script and your letter. I think that I like you back too." He tried as he thought over the Masqued Woman and the craziest of two days as it had already seemed like. Ivan had no idea exactly where everything began or just how well they'd do as a couple, but he really did like her, and he'd always found her cute without thinking much more than that. Her rainbow hair had always caught his attention after all.

"O-Oh," Mylene stuttered for a moment, eyes wide, and a blush forming on her face, "I-I like you two."  
"Would you like to get ice cream with me sometime?" Ivan asked as his nerves seemed to make a second appearance in such a short time.

"S-Sure, I'd love to." Mylene's bright smile was worth every single hassle that it took to get to this moment.

* * *

On the school steps, a different crush was forming as Adrien looked up and saw that once fiery girl with her anger became someone sweet and kind of endearing, someone that wasn't merely defined by that rage, but by a sort of cute awkwardness too.

Seeing only a small, couple sides of her, his brain shut down, and his smile became slightly dopey and slight lopsided. Even with an umbrella wrapped around her, she looked absolutely beautiful, and had stolen Adrien's breath.

As young love fluttered to life in Adrien's heart, he wasn't uet aware of the fact that she'd already fallen for Cat Noir, another side of him as well, and that it might take a while for feelings to be returned and felt so deeply and so strongly.

Stunned, all he could do was spend the next day, trying to figure out how he'd fallen for this mysterious woman, and how her anger had left kittens playing with yarn in his belly as nerves had made him nervous, more so from the yelling and new experience of school, but now, it could have a much deeper and bigger meaning that he couldn't quite shake off.

Adrien was a smitten kitten, and there wasn't much that could be done about that as Ladybug had already fallen so hard for Cat Noir, her partner in saving the Parisian day.


	20. Coffeeshop

Waking up to the smell of coffee in the morning is way different here than at home though he usually doesn't mind much as he brings his to go coffee cup into work, tired eyes finding his apron, and pulling it on as he smiles and waves at some of the other workers.

There's something thrilling about working here sometimes with the smell of coffee strong in his nose though buying a cup always seems overcharged, and so he usually just brings a tall cup from home with his third coffee in it when he's super tired.

It's cheaper than the Starbuck's down the road, and yet it still feels like it costs an arm and a leg sometimes as Nino starts off his work shift, watching to see if anyone were to come in and order a cup as Marinette starts sleepily sweeping the floor. She's more a mess when tired than he is, and sometimes he wonders why she didn't apply for a job with a different shift slot as she moves sluggishly, her brought from home coffee already finished where it sits just beside Nino's.

He can't quite leave her like that, and the work day really hasn't brought many customers yet, so he pauses to make her a cup of coffee and probably pay for it himself if she'll let him or only charge her for the smallest size while he makes the largest for her, careful with just the right amount of whipped cream on top.

Nino knows the kind of coffee that she likes from how many times she's actually had to order coffee to stay awake during her shift, so he doesn't hesitate. It's sweet, but not over the top, and he adds extra caffeine, figuring that she might need it.

"Marinette?" He calls as he finishes ringing up the order and paying for it, "Come here."  
When she starts walking closer, he realizes just how right that he was; she looked absolutely exhausted, and so he hands her the cup, half worried that she'll drop it with just how sleep deprived she seems.

"For me?" It perks her up slightly, and Nino smiles; it's almost like it's the first time that he's done this for her even though he's done it quite a few times by now.

"Yeah, you look like you need it, dude. Don't worry about it." He waves off her protests before they can start as Marinette stares wide eyed at him before she takes a slow sip of her coffee and smiles so widely and genuinely at the taste that Nino feels his heart warm. To make a friend and coworker this happy seems absolutely amazing even though it hadn't taken much more than a coffee.

* * *

The closer to afternoon it gets, the more awake they feel. Nino wonders how it became so much like clockwork as it felt like the rest of the world slowly woke up. The early birds had long since left, but now came in the sleepy college students that hadn't had super early classes, tired adults that had later shifts at their own jobs or just finished working for the day, and teenagers out for lunch.

Nino didn't mind the rush too much now as it wasn't anything like earlier, and Marinette was back at his side with a bright, not sleepy at all working smile as she made coffees for people as well, had since the floors were clean. Thankfully, as the rush slowed down into a lighter crawl as it grew just a little bit later and most people that came in weren't coming in for just a jolt to their morning, Nino and Marinette had the time to talk in between people coming in.

"So was it a design that kept you up?" Nino asked her as they waited for the next customer whenever they were to arrive.

"Yeah, I didn't want to lose it." Marinette's face pinked, "I should have checked the time last night and just jotted down quick notes, so that I didn't come in here looking like a zombie."  
"Don't worry about it. It happens." Nino shrugged, and it did as sometimes he had a DJing gig the night before he had to work at the coffee shop and ended up absolutely exhausted the next day and guzzling coffee like it was his life line.  
Honestly, Marinette's schedule nowadays was way busier than Nino figured that he could handle as she also had a full day of university classes on top of helping her parents out at their bakery. It felt overwhelming, and Marinette was not an early bird which didn't really help her out when she came to work exhausted.

"How're your classes going?" Nino asked after they'd served two more customers who came in for to go coffees of their own before rushing off to likely busy lives too.

"They're going well." Marinette smiled up at him, "They're really fun."

"I'm glad." While Nino needed a steady job to afford to keep DJing on the weekends and sometimes even the weekdays as well, Marinette was saving up for her own place and dreaming of chasing her dream of being a fashion designer, and Nino still found himself at least a little stunned by her determination lately even though he knew that eventually she'll trade her job at the coffee shop for a paid internship at a fashion company to get a bit more experience as a designer.

Right now, it was early enough at her university for her to instead spend her days working here with Nino. It's how they met actually.

* * *

Long days sometimes felt like too much as Nino yawned, tucking his head in his arms as the last couple of minutes drifted by; no one had been by in a little while, and so Marinette had opened up her sketchbook and starting fixing up one of her designs, possibly the one from the night before, or may be just a different one of her works in progress.

Her designs really were stunning, but it helped to not try to distract her if she's working on a design. Nino figured that watching her as she worked on it would take away the inevitable surprise of it if she ever did show him that particular design, so he just waited for his shift to be over or for the old bell above the door to ding with a new customer.

Three minutes remained of his shift, and yet they felt like the longest three minutes of his lifetime while he waited for them be over and for their coworkers that would replace them this shift to just get here. Nino felt like may be fixing something to eat when he got home and possibly taking a nap too since his tiredness had seemingly caught up to him though Marinette didn't look anywhere near tired anymore as she designed away.

Just a few more minutes, and his shift would be over though that few more minutes meant that Chloe Bourgeios would show up and demand one of the most complicated orders with the lightest ingredients, and Nino felt too tired to deal with her as he made her drink to her specialty and really hoped that she wouldn't complain about it like she sometimes did and demand another one.

There was really only so much that you could do when the mayor's daughter came into your work and wasn't happy with the service that she received at all, but at the very least, she made the last two minutes before his shift go by quicker as Adrien and Alya arrived to take over.

Nino couldn't have been more thankful in his life to take that apron off, tell his coworkers goodbye, and leave with a now much more distracted, happier Chloe chatting away with Adrien. Crisis averted, and finally he could go home and probably catch back up on sleep and made a warm meal.


	21. Childhood Friends

"Daddy always takes me to the most boring places." Chloe complained as she stared at another statue and a painting of a half naked woman. She was only six and yet she'd never been interested in the places that her father took her on business meetings or just whenever. He did tell her though that Paris was 'culturally' rich and that she'd understand that all and so much more when she was older.

She stopped as she found a boy about her age; he was sitting down, drawing in a book on his lap and humming to himself. Chloe thought she might have known the song and so she sat down, glancing back over at him, and wondering what he was drawing in the middle of the Louvre.

"Hello?" He asked though he didn't look up, and Chloe was half positive that her father had told her to always look at people when they spoke, so that had to be rude of him.

"How about you look up at me?" She tried as she struggled to find the right words though he did look up at her then, and she saw that he had green eyes. Green eyes always seemed so pretty; Adrien had them and so did his mom. His mom's a model, so may be green eyes meant that some people might be models or just really, really pretty.

"I'm looking now." He insisted, and she smiled as she glanced down at his drawing, finding a woman's face that she was pretty sure she knew, but yet it also looked a bit different. He'd drawn a whole different outfit on her and drew this version of her differently, and instead of looking quite as serious, she looked relaxed and kind of happy.

"Oh." Chloe muttered dumbly, "Is that the M-Mona Lisa?" She pointed out as she peeked back down at her, "But she looks different?"

"Sort of." The boy admitted, "I thought that I'd draw her as a superhero since so many people visit her, but I don't know if I should give her a cape like Superman or not like Spiderman."

"No cape." Chloe admitted, "It's just not fashion-fashionable." She tried, "Mommy doesn't like capes, and Wonder Woman doesn't have a cape, does she?"

"No, but Raven does." The boy admitted, "And she looks so scary with a cape sometimes."

"Who's Raven?" Chloe asked as she glanced over at the boy beside her wondering just how much he knew about superheroes.

"She's another superhero." He admitted with a smile, "She's a demoness."

"O-Oh." Chloe admitted, "A d-demoness? What's that?"  
"A girl demon." He answered her, "But Raven's not evil."

"Okay." Chloe admitted, "What's your name? Are you a superhero too?" If he knew so much about superheroes, then he had to be one, right?

"I'm Nathanael." He smiled, "And no, I'm not a superhero. I'd be Super Nathan though."

"Oh, that would be cool!" Chloe agreed as she tucked herself by his side, "I'm Chloe. My daddy's got an important meeting with someone here, so I'm kind of lonely."

"Okay." Nathanael answered her, "Want me to teach you how to draw?"

"S-Sure." Chloe beamed; she'd made her second friend, and he had such pretty green eyes too. She kind of wished that she had green eyes; they'd make a lovely green eyed team then!

* * *

Chloe sighed, 'Daddy has to discuss something at the office again.'

'His words or yours?' Was all that Nathanael typed back to her.

'His.' She sighed, 'Your mother needs to get you a phone, Nath, and you need to stop using hers.'

'I'm twelve, almost thirteen. Mom doesn't have the money to pay for my own phone, so I use hers. Not everyone is the mayor's daughter.' Nathanael typed back, and Chloe rolled her eyes.

'Adrien has a phone too.' She pointed out as she glanced back over at the time; her father didn't mean to leave her to eat dinner alone tonight. It just happened sometimes when work got busy.

'His dad owns a famous fashion company, and his mom is a famous model. Relax, I don't come from money.' Nathanael typed, and she could just imagine that sarcastic tone of voice that he liked to use whenever she got 'whiny.' He didn't use those words, but she'd heard them before and they kind of fit.

'Yeah.' Chloe typed.

'Hey, did you read that comic that I sent over?' Nathanael responded, and Chloe smiled at the thought of it.

'Majestia? Why is there no romance?' Chloe typed, 'It's boring without.'

'There's no one for her to date.' Nathanael typed out, 'Besides the action is the best.'

'You read weird stuff.' Chloe typed out as she laid down on her bed.

'You watch weird stuff.' Nathanael retorted, and Chloe smiled, biting back a laugh. This was why she liked talking to him when her father was away at work. Adrien was too nice to her and told too many puns, and he usually fretted over her and understood too well. Nathanael on the other hand easily retorted back, told no puns, though he talked about superheroes when he could.

He still dreamed of being one, but neither of them tended to mention 'Super Nathan,' though sometimes Chloe wondered if he still called himself that. He'd become her favorite part about going to the Louvre with her father.

'It's normal girls' stuff. Mommy watches with me when she isn't busy, and when I visit her.' Chloe responded gently, always hating that feeling that never quite left her that may be her mother had left because of her, and that's why she didn't still live with Chloe. Her daddy said that it wasn't her fault at all though that's all that he'd said.

'But I'm a boy.' Nathanael sent her; he never mentioned her mom, like he sort of knew to not talk about it. He lived with just his mother now, and Chloe never mentioned his dad.

His father had died about a year or so ago, and so Chloe just pretended that Nathanael only had a mom, and she only had a dad. Sometimes she pretended that her dad would marry his mom, and they'd get to live together and be sort of siblings. It was easier to think about than the fact that they'd both keep wishing for their family back. If it did happen, may be their families wouldn't feel so broken, and Chloe'd actually have siblings.

'You have long hair though.' Chloe typed back though she smiled; she loved Nathanael's hair. It was so soft and fun to play around with and looked so pretty in red. She didn't mind that it was a bit longer than any other boy she knew's hair; if she was Nathanael, she'd keep it long too. More soft hair made for more time to twirl it or run your fingers through it. Her hair wasn't as naturally soft, and Adrien's hair almost always had weird goop in it, so it felt hard sometimes.

'I know, and you're always playing with mine.' Nathanael typed out, 'How are you doing though?'

Sometimes he asked the weirdest questions, Chloe thought, even though they'd already asked 'How are you,' earlier when they first started texting today.

'I don't always play with it.' Chloe typed out before she decided to send him another text, 'I'm fine. Adrien smothers me, and Sabrina doesn't get it. I'm just happy to talk to you.'

'Smothers?' Nathanael asked.

'Mommy likes that word. She says it's sort of like always worrying and being really, really huggy and stuff. Mommy doesn't smother me though. She does the opposite.' Chloe finally finished.

'Oh, I thought it was someone else's word.' Nathanael typed, 'I don't smother or I don't think I do.'

'But you're usually so nice, so you might accidentally smother people.' Chloe smiled at the thought; she'd known Nathanael since they were little kids, and he was! She wasn't always nice though. Being nice was overrated or at least, she'd always heard that you can't always be nice from her parents, so she rarely bothered.

'I doubt it. Adrien smothers us. He's like our mom in the group. Sabrina hesitates. And you, you're just mean.' Nathanael typed though Chloe didn't mind. He was joking, she was pretty sure, and his jokes weren't meant to be super 'business' like serious.

'I'm not mean, not really, just not nice.' Chloe sighed.

* * *

"You like Marinette?" Chloe looked absolutely scandalized, "B-But aren't I prettier, and I've been your friend for so long."

"She's different from you, and I like you, just not the same way that I like Marinette. You can like two people differently." Nathanael told her as if she didn't already know.

"B-But she's the baker's daughter, and she'll fatten you up with sweets." Chloe complained.

"I don't come from money, and I don't care if I gain a little weight. They aren't cannibals, and I'm not a pig, so I'll be fine." Nathanael told her.

"Cannibals eat people, not pigs." Chloe told him stubbornly.

"I meant either or, Chloe, not both." Nathanael sighed, looking just a hint frustrated, "They're nice people. Just try talking to them like you do with Sabrina, Adrien, and I. You'll be fine, and you might actually get along."

"But I'm the mayor's daughter. I'm not supposed to be talking to mere bakers." Chloe grumbled.

"You talk to a 'mere' artist." Nathanael argued, not bothering to ask where she'd gotten the word from; she liked to 'borrow' words from her parents sometimes.

"You're not a mere artist!" Chloe screamed, "Besides that, you're my friend, and you've been my friend for a very long time."

"I know I have." Nathanael sighed, "But Marinette's family and Marinette could be your friends too, and if I ask Marinette out, you'll have to get along with her."

"But she likes Adrien!" Chloe screamed before she could really think about it, and once it clicked in her head, she saw saw the horror in Nathanael's eyes and instantly regretted it.

"Oh." He muttered, and she realized perhaps a second too late that he hadn't yet figured that part out.

"Nath, I'm sorry." Chloe stuttered, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. I was stupid." She hated apologizing to anyone, but she felt the need to when she'd hurt her friends so much. Her parents may have split up, and her mom may have left, but no matter how mean she was, Adrien and Nathanael didn't leave her. Sabrina almost had, but that was an accident.

"I guess you won't have to learn to like her unless Adrien realizes how absolutely amazing she is." Nathanael's anger or disappointment or whatever it was melted away as tears began to form in his eyes.

"I said, I'm sorry!" Chloe shouted by accident; she apologized. He shouldn't be crying, and he still was.

She wrapped her arms tight around him like she was hugging Adrien and tried to will pleasant thoughts in his head, but her mind was blank of anything good to say, and she kind of regretted her mouth and her tendency to not watch it too much unless she was with her father as he spoke to someone else as the mayor. Anything business like meant that she had to play nice or find inventive ways of appearing nice without being nice.

"It's not you. I know you." Nathanael muttered, and somehow it felt like those words made her world crash further around her as it wasn't that she hadn't caused it, but she felt like she'd effectively ripped Marinette out of Nathanael's life with just a few words. She hoped that he didn't blame Adrien, because Adrien liked Ladybug, and no one blamed him for that.

"But, Nath." Chloe took a deep breath as an idea appeared in her head, "She'll like you one day, I know it. You're you. What's not to like? And, and, and... she doesn't come from money either, so she'll want to be with you and not Adrien."

"People like her, Chloe, don't think about things like that. I know Adrien, and I know why she likes him then. I can't expect to win over her heart then." Nathanael left the room, and Chloe felt like running after him like those post breakup scenes in movies when people try to keep their boyfriend or girlfriend from running away or moving or anything like that. They always seem to get back together again, unlike her parents, and even though, Nathanael was just a friend, she didn't want to lose him.

"Nath, don't leave. You're my best friend." And in a way, it was true. She talked to Nathanael usually more than Sabrina and Adrien since Nath always told her how it was. She'd been there when he started getting shyer and tried to protect him from bullies, and he always made her feel welcome without being overbearing.

"I'm not leaving, just going home." He told her, and she believed him though she also knew that he hated crying in public now and so, he was going home to cry.

"Nath, call me in an hour, please?" She asked though she felt more like she was pleading even though the words didn't sound that way.

"I'll try, but you might want to call me." And his attempt to try to put a smile on his face told him that he'd be okay. He'd probably be mad at her later, and may be he'd still be hurting from this, but he'd get happier again.

Chloe sometimes hated the words that came out of her mouth, and today had been one of those days. May be she would try to be nicer to the Dupain-Chengs, and may be she'd try to get Nath and Marinette together out of the goodness of her heart. She just wasn't sure if she had the patience or the ability to do that, but Nath deserved more from her than some sharp as knives can be words and the reality that the girl that he liked liked his other frined.

It would take time, but they'd try to patch this up and get a little bit better. They were childhood friends after all.


	22. Crime

There was only so much she could do as she watched the guards move closely together and keep an eye on that jewel that she desperately wanted to take home with her. No bother as long as Papillion didn't somehow figure out her plan and tell them.

He had an annoying habit of just fluttering information away that he'd somehow picked up on; she hated the thought that he could be someone she knows, so she ignores it as she focuses. If only she could get them away from the jewel as Papillion was just as likely to rob the place and take home the jewel if she didn't move fast. Birds tended to be quick on their feet, so she'd have to be quick.

La Paon scooted carefully over towards the glass and dug a quick hole in it, carefully placing the glass that was in the center beside her on the roof, making sure not to place it somewhere where she'd slip on it later, assuming she left the way that she came in.

She carefully checked a bottle that would knock them out of her own if she had enough left over from the last time that Papillion had foiled her plans, and she'd had way more evidence that time than this moment. Grinning, satisfied that she had just enough, she slowly lowered herself down into the museum and checked both ways real quick as if they could have heard her silent landing.

Emilie crouched as she pressed forward, taking it step by step, until the light purple jewel literally glowed in the light and tempted her moreso than before. Her green eyes caught sight of a slightly less cautious shadow on the other end of the room. 'Perfect, more people to foil.'

There appeared her evidence anyway as she slid carefully out and slit open the bottle in her hands as she appeared near to the guards, seeing Papillion come just close enough to get a whiff of it. Emilie held her hand over her nose and mouth and watched as the guards fainted nearly one by one based off of how quick they could react and as Papillion finally collapsed just a few feet away.

La Paon carefully deactivated the sensor for the jewel and cut it out to avoid missing her chance of grabbing it and then walked carefully closer to Papillion and pulled his mask up to gasp as she'd seen her fiancee's face beneath it. She cursed under her breath, readjusted the mask over his face, and muttered low enough that she hoped that he heard it in his dreams, "We'll talk later."  
She picked up her bottle even though it was torn through completely and out of repair, just so that no one could analyze the bottle to realize its contents. It may have been her own mixture and creation, but she had mixed what she'd added with what was originally in the bottle. Emilie had to be on the safe side especially since her fiancee was apparently her 'rival' criminal with an agenda and vendetta all his own, she was sure.

* * *

Emilie got agitated and fidgetty easily especially when the night before, she'd set out and done a crime, usually theft, but she always avoided getting caught. Prison didn't sound fun in the least, and she wasn't willing to chance what exactly would happen to her there.  
She usually avoided actual close up fights, preferring to knock out those on the defensive, and rush in quietly once they were out to finish up what she'd set out to do. Gabriel was fifteen minutes late to their planned date that they'd set up three weeks earlier. He fussed over time in a way that Emilie both admired and felt like was the most peace disturbing way that he could live his life.

"Come on, Gabriel. Your fiancee is waiting, and you shouldn't still be knocked out on the museum floor, and it doesn't take you that long to change, now does it?" She felt far worse than normal as her belly ached and twisted with nervous knots that she was positive that she couldn't get out with a hair straightener, no matter how high the setting was on.

"Emilie, I'm sorry that I'm late. I ran into some unexpected trouble on my way here." Gabriel murmured, "We might have to call this date short."

"You're always on time normally." Emilie couldn't help it that her tone was like a sharp piece of ice jabbing right into his side and hopefully into his heart too, "I can't call it short if my fiancee is a little too busy to talk with me." She bit her lip before she could just threaten him about finding a new fiancee since she likely should try to be 'good' at least a little bit.

"Emilie, it will only be for a little while." Gabriel murmured, trying to be soft, but Emilie knew that his temper was often worse than her own or was at the very least much louder than her own.

"No, Gabriel. We've been planning this out for weeks, and I've made sure that I'm free to fit around your schedule. Compromise works both ways, and if we can't get along, can't see eye to eye, then we shouldn't get married." Emilie felt like a ticking time bomb, and she couldn't help how her eyes flickered back to her fiancee, fearlessly judging him for the things that he'd never told her and the things that he wasn't going to.

"Okay, okay." Gabriel backed down at the threat though she knew that his temper over something completely different would bring back these words later on and yet she didn't really care about that at the moment, "I'll stay instead of investigate. I'll just tell my boss that I need to spend time with my fiancee instead. She's sick or something."  
Emilie smiled, and it was something a tad evil, a little mischievous, and definitely lethal if pushed to it, "Gabriel, I have a feeling that we should talk about your second job." She suggested as if it was the most casual change of topic in the world, as if they were talking weather, and not sitting at her table in her house as she pushed the topic to waters that it might not come back from. Emilie hadn't yet decided if that was a good thing or not.

"My second job? What second job, Emilie?" Gabriel asked, and his poker face was good. Emilie was a bit impressed, but she wouldn't let that poker face get in the way of her seeking answers.

"The one that you pretend to know nothing about." Emilie leaned back in her chair, feigning relaxation as it would shoot his nerves way, way up, "The one that makes you go to the black market and exchange priceless paintings for millions of dollars as the FBI hunts you down right at this door."

"You're having people investigate me? I thought you trusted me. I don't even know where the Black Market is to buy or sell anything illegally there." Gabriel argued, and Emilie almost laughed at how innocent he was trying to make himself appear.

"Stop lying to me." Her tone grew venomous as she stood up, "I knew that I should have poisoned you to begin with."

"Emilie, you're scaring me." But, his tone was flat. There was no trace of fear in it at all, just calm composure, and a little bit of annoyance as if it was just merely 'annoying' that she'd figured out that he was criminal.

"I would have thought that a criminal power couple would work together like Joker and Harley Quinn, but I guess I thought wrong." Emilie drawled, glaring her fiancee down, "You can leave now, 'Papillion.'" She did her best to sneer his name and make it sound like the worst kind of insult imaginable, and it sort of worked in its own way.

"Emilie, why accuse me of being Papillion and claim to be a criminal? We're both just regular people, falling in love, and figuring it out as we go like some math equation that it takes two to solve." Gabriel tried for placating, but Emilie could hear the agitation in her fiancee's voice begin to grow.

"Gabriel Agreste, I've never been anywhere near normal, and you won't be the solution to my math equation with how you've been lately, especially going behind my back to rob museums of their jewels. I always knew how to frame another criminal if ever need be, and you'd look mighty good in a frame, you always would, wouldn't you?" Emilie felt so, so angry, not just angry, but livid, and she really wanted to teach him a lesson since he'd hid his criminal nature and 'second career' from her for so long that he kind of needed his own wake up call.

"What made you think that I'm Papillion? You've known me for close to three years now, and never once did you accuse me of being some common criminal. I love you, and I thought you loved me." Gabriel murmured, and Emilie shook her head at that.

"Flattery doesn't work on me, not since I found out you were Papillion last night. I thought you loved me until yesterday, so come up with something better." Emilie admitted, "And stop hiding your other life!" Her anger boiled up and burst out of her like a drum.

"Emilie, are you La Paon?" Gabriel looked stunned as if he couldn't just believe the words that came out of his mouth.

"If I am, would that change anything?" She demanded; when two criminals couldn't get along with each other, something had obviously went wrong though she was positive that was just their competitive natures getting in the way at the very beginning.

"It would. Papillion wouldn't have to be your enemy any longer. We could work together, get twice as much work done." Gabriel rationalized, and Emilie smiled over at him, still struggling to trust anything that her fiancee said anymore.

"If we did, what would you do? Hug the wall, clutter the floor, or just steal from some place else?" Emilie couldn't believe how much the way she treated her fiancee changed from mostly sweet to taunting in the span of less than twenty four hours.

"Help from the sidelines. Monitor the room. Keep guards away from you and keep you safe while you completed the theft flawlessly and quickly. You've always been efficient." Gabriel answered her, and his answer seemed so genuine that she just didn't know what to do at first.

She glowed, standing tall, chest a bit puffed out, and looking all the more like an extremely pleased or proud bird, just complimented and still relishing in that moment.

"You really are La Paon, aren't you?" The awe in his voice melted her heart, and from that day onward, La Paon vowed to be a good partner for Papillion, both as his wife soon, and as his partner in crime.


	23. Historical

Rumors spread like wild fire that Germany wanted war and that world peace would be short lived. Blame fested around every corner, and France stood still, dealing with the poverty that embedded itself within the nation and trying to fix itself, pull out of what held them back.

Work came slow as she tried to find anyone who had the money to buy clothes and not just wear handmedowns, the wealthy seemed far away from where she lived as she finally closed up for the day, finding her way to her parent's farm just a short distance away. They'd started it for farm fresh food which helped a lot in baking or cooking, and while their business wasn't what you'd call booming, it was doing way better than hers.

"Marinette, can you help us out real quick?" Sabine asked, and Marinette wondered if she was the only one who felt the change in the air though she didn't dare mention those rumors that Alya was always whispering about whenever she was free as if this was something to just listen in on and see as something that wasn't reality.

"I can." Marinette fit perfectly within this dynamic as she helped wash fruit and vegetables, taking time to even help her father prepare bread for the hungry customers that could never bring much nowadays to buy bread or vegetables or fruit or anything. Poverty struck with a vengeance, and there were no booming factories close by.

* * *

"Germany took part of Czechoslovakia." Alya gossiped, leaning against the counter as if she belonged there, "I hear that man, Adolf Hitler, just took it without a fight or anything. Not like we can fight like this." She sighed, looking exasperated, "We barely have food to put on the table."  
"May be Germany will stop." Marinette suggested, "After all, wasn't the land German or Prussian before?"

"Yeah." Alya sighed, "That and claiming Austria really doesn't help support the idea that things aren't just getting worse. I've never been all that optimistic." She loved a good story as drama unfolded on the page, as if all of the action became like books or the radio were for some people or even the television that few seemed able to afford under the depression that it seemed like the whole world had fallen into after the Great War.

"They're German. Hitler hasn't said he wants anything else, right?" Marinette just felt a deep feeling of dread that wouldn't leave her alone and just give her a moment of rest.

"He hasn't. Yet." Alya looked up at the ceiling, "I don't think that he'll just stop."

"He's been civil so far." Marinette argued to just calm down her nerves that wouldn't quit; the feeling of doom spread through her whole being, and she just wished that it would go away, so that she could pretend to be an optimist for a little longer still.

"He has for the most part. Germany seems to like him." Alya shrugged, "Just, isn't everyone corruptible after a certain point like giving a baby more and more sweets until eventually he decides he wants them all?"

"I guess so." Marinette already hated whatever direction this world was going into, but she'd at least pretend that she wasn't freaking out on the inside. It wouldn't due to spread fear all through France, that never seemed to last well. It did help end a revolution once though Marinette wouldn't count on fear not making people angry and revolting for peace eventually.

She just wanted peace and for France to do well. Watching families start to wither away when jobs were lost or when things really weren't going all that well throughout the nation just made her sick.

* * *

The news hit like the bullet of a soldier's gun as she crowded near Alya and listened as it was announced all throughout France that they'd declared war on Germany after the country had decided to invade Poland. England had been sure to follow alongside France in declaring war, and yet Marinette didn't feel any better.

War was the last thing that France wanted and yet that wouldn't change the reality of just what that word would mean for them. It had been easier, much easier, to pretend or imagine that Germany would stay nice, never directly firing a bullet, just seizing land without too much force.

It felt like a fatal flaw, realizing too late that they were too docile, and yet Marinette felt so sick from the news that she was positive that she'd need to lay down, that she'd need to imagine a better, more peaceful world before she ends up trying to be stronger and work harder for the direction that her country was now headed towards.

It was too soon. The Great War felt like it had barely ended, and France wasn't doing too well. Wars weren't miracle cures for nations or at least Marinette doubted that they'd ever be, and yet her struggling nation, not unlike so many around the world, except for the fact that it wanted to go to war with Germany.

Marinette understood that France likely would have been next after Poland anyway, but she felt so bitter and sick over the idea of war again that she wondered how anyone could think that it was a good idea to fight a war again. She'd not been immune to seeing veterans struggle when they returned from the Great War, and yet sometimes it hadn't been blatantly obvious how in pain they actually were. It, at times, took really talking to someone for a while though others stumbled or were missing limbs or obviously hadn't handled the aftermath of the war well at all.

Some almost pretended to be perfectly fine or at the very least were much better at hiding the pain. Marinette wasn't ready to go through all of that again. She just wanted France to recover and stop getting so swept up in another war. Didn't France try to make it so Germany wouldn't recover quickly or at all to avoid another war? Didn't they manage to keep Germany from having an army or from being economically stable? France was supposed to make money off of Germany and not get further swept under this debt that seemed to shake the world.

Marinette wasn't so sure that a war really wouldn't smash France back into the ground and keep them there like they'd tried to keep Germany there, and yet she wasn't the one making the important decisions that ended up pitting them against another nation once again, especially not Germany.

* * *

It felt like the war was dragging on on France's front or so Alya claimed; Marinette just wished that the issue would be dropped as Germany continued its mad invasions, and as she realized that more of the world was beginning to be at war than she realized. She'd felt ignorant to the war in Asia that now seemed more and more connected to the German front, and she'd not realized that Italy had joined forces with Germany until recently.

France was preparing for war and that took time, and yet Marinette just wished that it would take so long that they wouldn't go to war even though that was an impossible wish. Alya just wanted to get a chance to report on the war if she'd be allowed to though Marinette knew that every shred of Alya's humanity would be tested if she did.

Alya may love a good story and the kind of drama that happens far outside of you, and yet she has a heart that Marinette's sure would be broken wherever they end up fighting Germany. She knows that Alya isn't invincible, that she does truly care and love others, after all, she'd been the one that had taken Marinette in as her friend what seems like so long ago. A Marinette that had been unsure of herself, struggling to chase her dreams, and yet only needed Alya's offered hand and support to help her rise out of the cracks that held her back.

Alya's her dearest friend, her best friend, and Marinette could never give that up. Sometimes, she's positive that she'd have to chase Alya down on some warzone somewhere, just to prove that Alya's being safe and cautious when she should be. Marinette would hate to lose Alya, to realize that their days as friends were limited, and she never ever wanted to get a letter sent home that Alya had died, serving to record the war.

Marinette just wants her friends and family safe above all things as the war slowly approached France and as the world seemed to lose its mind once again. She hoped that somehow it would be a quicker, less gruesome war than the last one. That feeling in her gut though told her that it wouldn't be, and that she should treasure the last few moments of peace for her country before worry became pain and brought death along its borders.


	24. Office Workplace

Sometimes pure chance reunited you with those that you went to school with, and old friendships were renewed and strengthened as you all worked towards something beyond just the desk job or the nine to five job that everyone else seemed to work at too.

"So..." Rose practically bounced in her desk chair, "I'm so excited! This weekend, Juleka, Nath, and I are heading out to the fair. I can't wait!" Her excitement shifted into bouncing, and it was almost like nothing else had really changed.

"I'm happy for you." Marinette murmured, smiling as she turned towards the phone half expecting it to ring or for their boss to catch them talking; he'd caught them talking before, but the phone usually rang instead, and her attention had to become focused on work again. "I have some competitions that I'm looking forward to, and my unpaid internship could become a paid one soon or at least a steady job after a little longer." The only sad part about that would be the fact that she'd turn in her two weeks' notice here, and she wouldn't be able to work alongside Rose and some of the others.

"That's great! You know, Nath, just got one of his paintings into a museum, and things are going well for him too. He's been working so hard!" Rose paused her excitement for just a moment, "You sure that you don't want me to set you up on a date? You, two, are so creative, and I'm just amazed by both of you, and you've been good friends before."

"Rose, I don't have time for a relationship right now, and when the madness settles down, I'm still not sure if I could think of Nath that way. We've known each other for years, and I've never looked at him in a romantic light." Marinette hated reexplaining this every now and again to Rose, but she was insistent that Marinette should at least try to date Nath.

"You don't have to be in love with him yet. You just have to try to date him for a few dates, and be honest with him." Rose pouted, "You have great chemistry, and we haven't heard from Adrien for years, so..."  
It wasn't that Marinette was still stuck on Adrien or at least she didn't think she was, between random patrols to blow off steam after Hawkmoth's defeat, budding feelings for Cat Noir, and still not knowing his identity as a part of him had closed off after Hawkmoth's defeat, and it had taken ages for him to patrol with her again. She didn't want to push it, so she hadn't spoken a word to him, but telling Rose that she was beginning to fall for Cat Noir would be weird, well, more than plain weird anyway.

"I know. I don't think that I still have feelings for Adrien, Rose. I haven't seen him since before he went off to study Physics. I think he's a teacher now from what Alya's told me, but I haven't looked into it." Marinette couldn't imagine asking out her teenage crush now. He had a job that he loved, had grown up a little, and still was likely dealing with Hawkmoth's identity as that had been splashed all over the news for weeks after his defeat, Adrien had had to deal with lengthy court trials, proving his innocence as well as his ignorance to who his father also had been until Hawkmoth's defeat, and a whole slew of new things to deal with.

He'd even quit modeling right after and sold his father's business for a decently hefty pile of cash to one of the head designers and his family, and all seemed to finally be right in Adrien's life. Adrien had even sold his old mansion and lived in a modest apartment or so Alya told her that it was modest. She just knew that he'd sold his mansion as that had always splattered through the news as if it was a prime cover story, so Marinette really hoped that she wouldn't have to deal with that mess right now.

Rose, on the other hand, was happily engaged to Luka Couffaine, Juleka's older brother, and so, every weekend, almost without fail, Luka had a concert, and Rose went. She actually went to most of his concerts. Now, they were writing songs together, and considering making her an official member of the band. She just seemed like she had everything going for her whenever she could afford to leave this job and focus on music full time with her soon to be husband.

Rose had apparently known Luka for years through knowing his sister, and time had brought her so much closer to Luka that she'd fallen head over heels in love with him. She'd insisted that she hadn't suspected falling so hard for him for many, many years. It might be why she was so insistent that Marinette and Nathanael would make a great couple.

"You should come hang out with us when you can anyway." Rose pouted at Marinette, and just a second later the phone in front of Rose rang.

"You've reached the customer service of Bill And Franc's cosmetics. How may we help you today?" Rose smiled an adorable, embarrassed smile, "I'm Rose by the way."

"Oh, Ron, sure. I understand. I'll just pull that up on the computer, and see if we can get you some for your wife's birthday. We try to be conscious of allergy's here, but I do have to make sure that we have the right stuff for her." Rose was always so amiable and usually polite on the phone at work though some days it seemed as if she broke from that polite tone of voice and went for a more casual one.

Rose could be on the phone for hours with customers especially when the customer was just as sociable. Sometimes Marinette wondered if this job really was enough to satisfy Rose's social nature.

Marinette just waited for her phone to ring as she heard Alya pick up her phone, between working as a journalist in a series of jobs, Alya tended to pick up odd jobs to get a feel for them, and this was one of them. She just sought adventure, and keeping up the LadyBlog was likely way harder than it used to be since there were no more Akumas and Hawkmoth had been taken care of already.

"Oh, yes we do. Right here, James." Alya spoke up, "We'll get them ordered right for you. You do makeup tutorials, How wonderful! The company can't wait to see them. I'd love to report on how it goes if you'd let me." How Alya always managed to find someone to interview Marinette had no idea. Hopefully, 'James' wouldn't mind too much if Alya just interviewed him though depending on whether he was from France or not would affect how Alya interviewed him and how long it would take.

Marinette was positive that their boss somehow rigged the phone line for people that actually did makeup tutorials to always get Alya as her interviews tended to do very well for the company as she'd credit the makeup company as well as the makeup artist.

Marinette tapped her fingers down on the desk as she waited for her phone to ring, half expecting a wave of phone calls since her friends seemed to all be on the phone already. When she finally got one, she plastered on a smile that the customer obviously couldn't see and started explaining just how to get their money back on a makeup that they'd bought and ended up being allergic too.

Today was bound to be a long one.

* * *

As the work day started to wind down, and the weekend seemed inevitable, Marinette found Rose smiling over at her again. "Hey, Marinette? How is work going for you today?" Rose likely ran out of decent topics to talk about and needed a fresh start or was avoiding talk of Nathanael or this weekend again to avoid upsetting Marinette. She wasn't really angry at her, just tired of that topic that often came up.

"It went well. Be careful, our boss may check on us to see if we're not distracted or ask Alya is she'd promoting the company." The one woman reporter of the crew tended to make the company became much more famous and big in just one article. Alya claimed that's why she worked in the customer service department. 'You find interesting people to interview and interesting stories that could end up in a novel or a news article.'

Alya was less likely to write a novel and yet Marinette wouldn't put it past Alya to find a million and one different angles to write about an interesting customer that really did need help with makeup. They'd all stumbled upon some interesting customers since working here as you got a mix of everything, irrate customers, overly polite customers, ones with really weird questions or strange phobias about certain kind of makeup, occasionally prank callers, and the list went on and on. The funny customers were perhaps the best ones as they made the dull days seem far less dull and usually could get a few good laughs out of the employees here with a few well timed jokes or playful sarcasm.

Marinette loved those days though they didn't happen often. Sometimes she even stumbled upon customers that were their own brand of inspiration to Marinette, and she wasn't quite sure how to explain that. She brought a notebook for designs to work and discretely hid it in her desk in case a customer accidentally inspired a clothing design. She still had no idea how exactly they did it or what, but she wasn't going to question a rare piece of luck.

The first time that she'd had it happen before, she had to ask both Alya and Rose for paper before actually getting a piece and being able to finally sketch out a design before she lost it and worried that she'd desperately need it for some project or another. Those days were also one of Marinette's favorites though they only happened every once and a while and usually only with very interesting customers on the line.

"Okay..." Rose sighed, blowing out a tired breath of air. Franc was their boss and even though he sounded like money, Franc was actually his nickname. He liked to watch over the customer service side of the company for some reason, but no one tended to mind unless he was having an off day and was very stern.

Franc came out just as their shifts were ending and new ones were beginning, and he was smiling, probably since his wife, Frankie, had visited for lunch earlier in the day. They were one of those couples with similar enough names that they had to find ways of being called that were definitely different to avoid anyone else's confusion.

Despite the name confusion, they were one of the cutest couples ever though at work, Franc and Frankie weren't able to spend all day together clearly, so they rarely saw his wife while they were working.

As the day ended, Marinette just looked forward to getting home, getting a bit of rest, and may be getting a headstart on her designs if her mind didn't blank and she wasn't too tired.


	25. FWB

"We'll still be friends, but we'll kiss too." Rose smiled up at him, "I kind of want the kissing practice anyway. You know, so that I'll be prepared one day when I actually kiss a not friend?"

"I understand that, but me?" Nathanael admitted, and while Rose's idea of a friends with benefits type deal was way more PG than he'd heard of before, he still wasn't sure why should she choose him or not just chance it when she did get a boyfriend one day.

"I trust you. You're one of my closest friends, and you'd never hurt me." She murmured softly, "I like you a lot as a friend, and so kissing you shouldn't be so bad. Besides, I grew up with Luka and Juleka, and so I wouldn't want to kiss Luka at all."

Nathanael shook his head with a smile; her logic was so simple, but it wasn't bad logic. He could kind of get along with that actually. "Okay. What happens if I say, 'yes?'"

"We kiss and we cuddle and we hang out more. It's not technically dating, but we get to just be close without worry of anything like that." Rose looked so happy at the thought that Nathanael's heart warmed despite itself, and he really wanted to just pull her close and hold her against his heart.

"Okay, it doesn't sound bad." Nathanael admitted, still adjusting to the thought of all of that with Rose.

"It isn't bad, and we'll take it slow. Just hugs and cuddles and may be kisses on the cheek for now." Rose beamed up at him, "Nothing drastic like kisses on the lips until we are much more comfortable with it." Her idea of a friends with benefits kind of relationship, Nathanael could really get behind as she wasn't trying to rush him into something without some kind of plan, and it really was innocent, just sort of practice for when they'd both actually fall in love one day.

There were just no romantic feelings between the friends though.

"Okay." Nathanael figured, 'Why not start now,' so he pulled her into a gentle and somewhat quick hug, nothing too slow and cuddly, but nothing too fast and awkward. It was sort of like their friendship hugs though may be just a second or two longer. It felt nice and relaxed, and Rose was warm and soft in his arms, just shorter enough that she fit so very comfortably there.

* * *

It started out so slowly that no one seemed to notice a change, not when Rose leaned up against his side and rested her head gently by his shoulder, not when she giggled and looped a hand around his arm, not when she just smiled at him when no one else was looking.

For Nathanael, it felt like there was an extra bolt of lightning between the two of them, an extra static that wasn't distuinguishable and yet felt far more pronounced than it looked. No one said a word about them looking like a couple or being more than friends.

It was a really easy, gradual shift, and Nathanael hadn't thought too much more about them being just a tad above normal friends until quite a while later.

* * *

About a week or two into their friends with benefits type deal, Rose asked Nathanael a question that he hadn't been prepared for at all despite her hand in his and her arm looped just so around his. Her beaming and absolutely innocent smile when she asked him didn't do anything to stop his mind from blanking as he stared down into pretty blue eyes.

"Can I kiss you?" It felt far different than her just taking his hand in hers whenever or when she got tired and practically fell asleep against his arm. It was completely different than any platonic friendship that Nathanael had had, and yet as he looked into her eyes and saw hope, he couldn't really turn her down.

"S-Sure." Nathanael took a deep breath as if to steady himself as Rose stood up on her tiptoes, throwing both of her arms around his neck either for balance or because she'd saw couples do that before, and she pressed so closely that for a moment, all that he could feel was warmth. Her lips were soft, a little wet from either the times when she licked her lips or when she pulled her lip into her mouth when she was thinking about something deeply or really nervous. It was an observation that Nathanael had never expected to realize from this friendship ages ago.

Rose kissed so gently and slowly, like she was afraid to hurt him or slip up, and it felt so weird, kind of awkward like just kissing a friend, and kind of silly like they really shouldn't be kissing like this in this moment.

Every second dragged on, almost agonizingly long as he tried to kiss her back the way that she kissed him, and as her smooth lips brushed against his, he wondered if kissing was usually this awkward. It wasn't gross, but he couldn't really taste her, not without his tongue, and he'd never really had any experience to compare it too.

When Rose pulled back and screwed up her face into a sillier expression as if contemplating what kissing was like for her and yet bringing everything back into something that made more sense than that awkward, tingling feeling that hadn't stopped Nathanael short with desire. He didn't feel compelled to kiss her, just kind of confused.

"That was weird." Rose stared up at him, and Nathanael couldn't nod his head quick enough as Rose leaned back against his side, "I think that I like cuddling and hugs more."

It was sort of like trying to figure out how to 'romance' without the romance part actually being there, and Nathanael figured that may be kissing wouldn't be so weird if they'd actually been dating or planning to date anyway.

* * *

Rose can be a bubble bursting with a random thought and yet Nathanael had not expected anything like that to shake him to his core. "You look handsome today."

It wasn't much; it certainly wouldn't have the same effect as the word hot, but Nathanael wasn't wearing anything too unusual and hadn't done anything different with his hair. He'd just thrown on a slightly paint splattered, red button up shirt, and some old jeans that looked nice enough to wear to school.

The jeans felt a little snugger than Nathanael wished he was wearing, and just may be if he'd been trying to look nicer than usual, he'd wear a newer button up. He had some new ones from just two months ago on some random shopping trip with his mother.

"Thank you. You look pretty." He tried, and Rose really did. She wore a light pink dress that came to just above her knees, and somehow the pink highlighted how light and pretty her skin really was. Nathanael hadn't thought much about it until she'd complimented him however.

"Thank you." Rose smiled a sweet, endearing smile and then promptly latched on to his arm, "Are you eating with Juleka and I today or are you going to eat with Marc or Alix today?"

"I'll eat with you." Nathanael never really made lunch time plans though he had been eating a lot with Marc lately and trying to see if Marc and Alix would like to become friends and may be hang out too.

Alix today had been in another competition with Kim and likely wanted to focus on that, and Marc had said that he had a story idea that he wanted to work on during lunch earlier in the morning. Nathanael didn't midn sitting with Rose and Juleka today, and besides while his heart may have been buzzing a bit from her random compliment, it wasn't enough to distract him from how comfortable it just would be to sit down at the same table with Rose again.

* * *

The second time that Rose kissed him, she hadn't really asked, just look at him kind of funny, concentrated, and stood up and done so. It felt less awkward, but it took Nathanael a second to realize that he could just wrap his arms around her waist and hold her close for just a moment as she kissed him.

Once again, he followed her lead, but something just felt different than last time, not a whole lot, but there was a spark of something undeniably there, nothing super romantic as far as Nathanael knew and nothing like the way that he sometimes wondered if kissing Ladybug would have felt like back before he gave his first kiss to Rose and discovered just how awkward kissing could be.

No one started out a pro despite what Nathanael kind of wished, but when Rose pulled back, she was smiling.

"That was better." She beamed up at him, "May be the third time's the charm whenever we try it again. May be even actually dating someone might be like that."

"Probably." Nathanael agreed, just so that he wouldn't have too put all that much thought into that since he was already starting to feel guilty over kissing someone that he didn't have romantic feelings for. He'd wanted to date Marinette for so long, and when his feelings switched over a little more towards Ladybug, he'd never paused to consider kissing anyone else like Rose was.

It still felt a bit out of the order that things were supposed to be in, so Nathanael bit his lip and pretended that it didn't make that much of a difference that since they'd been extra cuddly, gave longer hugs, and now kissed that he hadn't fallen head over heels for Rose yet or at all.

Just, he'd want something like this out of a relationship with real feelings considered, but yet he didn't have those here.

* * *

Rose really was cute, and Nathanael had no idea why the thought had hit him today all of a sudden as they hung out with Juleka, Marc, and Alix. She was wearing some casual jean shorts and a yellow top with a yellow ribbon along the front of it, just above two buttons.

She wasn't dressed up or really trying to be cute, but she just was. Something about Rose sparked something off inside Nathanael's chest, and he wasn't sure if it was his heart that was going off like a rocket or if he was beginning to feel faint by the power that he was giving Rose's tiny hands.

Rose just kept on smiling though, humming some old song that he couldn't place underneath her breath, and just letting her bright, sunshiney smile be all the sunshine that Nathanael needed in his world.

She was adorable, and Nathanael just couldn't find the words for it.

* * *

"Hey, Rose, can we talk?" He asked when it became too much and felt like his heart might just explode in his chest.

"Oh, sure." She smiled while she waved bye to their friends, and once Nathanael and her were behind an old brick building, he kissed her for the first time ever.

He'd never paused to actually start a kiss, and it felt almost like fire when she reciprocated, gasping into his mouth, and tried to stand as tall as she could to kiss him better. Her skin burned him and yet it didn't hurt, and while it still felt weird, Rose became a match or liquid fire or something beyond Nathanael's control, and he couldn't let go of her if he tried.

It hit him when she pulled back, that he was falling for her, not by how she kissed, but by the little things. Hearing her hum oldies, laughing over a spontaneous joke of hers, noticing just how cute she looked without trying, knowing that she often pulled her lip into her mouth while she was thinking really hard over something, how she still sometimes treated Nathanael like glass, how she loved to cuddle and hug him and thought that kissing was weird.

It was every little thing comprised in her own list that made up everything that Rose was, and he was beginning to fall for all of the little things about her. His heart stuttered at the thought, and he smiled down at the cutest girl that he knew.

Rose was already way more than just a friend and on her road to becoming way more than a friend with benefits, and Nathanael still wasn't sure how everything would work its way out, just that it would.


	26. BFF Swap

Sometimes it was kind of weird when your best friend was a boy and you were a girl. She may have only met Nino this year or rather really began to talk to him then but his calm nature tended to soothe and ease a side of her that seemed often on the fritz.

Whatever Chloe said or implied didn't matter. Everyone knew that Chloe had never really had a hetero friendship that wasn't tainted by her romantic feelings or at least not since she'd become a teenager anyway.

Anyone could have a healthy, well lasting friendship if they really tried, and Marinette smiled as those thoughts and concerns faded to the background.

"So should I roll the dough?" The general excitement hidden behind Nino's glasses didn't disguise his joy and the fact that he really, really did want to roll the dough out.

"Sure." Marinette smiled as she relaxed under the gentle atomsphere that just seemed to flourish as far as baking was concerned in her life and just recently as far as Nino was concerned. It seemed equally relaxing to just spend the day baking with her best friend. "Do you want to play Ultimate Mecha Strike when we're done baking?" Marinette asked. There should be time before dinner for them to play a round or two and hopefully Nino would get a chance to stay over for dinner.

"That would be fun." Nino agreed but he shot her a half playful look anyway, "But you're going to destroy me anyway."

"It will be fun." Marinette agreed with a bright, triumphant smile, choosing to not say a word about Nino's last statement. Let him think what he will. The fact that she'd beaten him almost every time at the game was just a testament to how right his opinion might actually be.

"Alright. I'll ask my parents if I can stay for dinner." Nino agreed with a smile, only pretending that he wasn't just as thrilled as he actually was, assuming that he'd be able to hang out longer.

No matter how confusing anyone found their friendship, Marinette knew just how incredible of a friendship it really was.

* * *

Alya was convinced that there was no better way to end an exhausting weekend of babysitting her little sisters than to head over to Adrien's house for some video games and excited chatter about the superheroes in Paris or usually one in particular: Ladybug.

As their favorite topic, they could ramble about Ladybug like the best of them and still never run out of incredible things to say, and their favorite past time as far as Ladybug conversations went was to share every single moment of theirs with her to dissect and consider and debate what all it meant or just try to put together a full side of Ladybug from every single experience of their own.

Every passing day made this past time more exciting as it seemed like Adrien always had stories to tell and Alya almost always had stories to tell too. Sometimes it was definitely more than a little difficult to get actual work done when all that they wanted to do was talk, hang out, and play video games even though Adrien was way better than her at them.

Alya just liked to claim that he had too much practice.

* * *

Alix curled her feet up on the bed as she waited for Max to sit down next to her to go over the homework. It wasn't that she couldn't follow the math problems, just that it was much, much better with her best friend by her side.

"Did you follow the lesson today?" Max asked quietly as he settled down to calmly finish an answer at least twenty questions ahead of her. He honestly could do most math problems in his head or at least it often felt that way for Alix as she looked over at him whenever he seemed caught up in schoolwork.

"Yeah, I want to compare answers. I've finished four of them." Alix frowned as if she didn't already know that Max was one of the smartest people that she knew. He excelled at science and math while Alix often knew enough history especially Egyptian history to help tutor him if he's struggling with names or dates. She could pronounce the names as if she spoke Egyptian her whole life too if she really wanted to.

Alix had history enthusiasts for her brother and her father, so she'd had to pick up something eventually, a lesson that came in handy whenever Max wanted extra help with history. It wasn't like he was struggling or didn't understand history, and the same could be said with Alix as far as math went, but they each had their own strengths.

"So when are you giving an impromptu tour of the Louvre again?" Max asked her softly, and Alix smiled as she tapped him on the shoulder. Even though many would claim that they were complete opposites, they were friends through thick and thin.

"I can today after our study session and homework." Alix muttered as she finished up problems eight and seven before realizing that problem nine was the worst of those three and felt nearly impossible to solve.

At least Max was here to walk her through it and help her understand it better. He always gave the answer away when he shown her how to do it, but Alix was just too grateful for his help to mind.

* * *

"Do you ever not feel good enough, Nath?" Kim asked as he went through some quick stretches, and Nathanael tried to smile at his best friend. He sometimes felt the need to ask serious questions for Nathanael to answer.

"I do." Nathanael sighed as he sketched a random scene from last night's dream or as much as he could remember of it anyway. He was bored, and it was the first thing that had popped into his mind or at least eager to draw with no 'new' ideas to draw.

"How do you feel better?" Kim asked softly, and Nathanael knew deep down that this conversation was way more important than last night's dream or the drawing that he'd been working on.

"Try to think about the good things too." Nathanael admitted, "It's never easy, but I like to try to focus on whatever I think that I'm not good at and find ways in it that I like. If it's an art style anyway." Nathanael suddenly wasn't sure if his words were even good enough to describe whatever he was feeling or comfort his best friend in any way.

"Okay, I'll try that." Kim stopped and just leaned against the wall, "Best buds forever?"

Nathanael smiled. This friendship meant the world for him even though few around seemed to realize how two seemingly 'opposite' people became such close friends: the artist and the athlette.

He'd never do anything to hurt this friendship, and all that he wanted was for his best friend to be just as happy to have this kind of support system as Nathanael was to give it out.

* * *

Sometimes friendships are an interesting puzzle that not many can figure out from the outside looking in, and sometimes they form where you least expect them to.

Friendship is as incredibly unique as the people that make it up, and so even if things seem odd from the outside, true friendship stands the test of time.


	27. Internet

Getting out much really wasn't written down in whatever rule book, Adrien could have sworn his father had made and probably printed and may be even published somewhere. Adrien sighed as he searched through the page again and smiled as he finally found the right words to load the AU that he was searching for.

Everything seemed so in place for it as he realized that there was a whole storyline and arc by this writer and already fifty plus chapters in three years. Adrien was so impressed though he hadn't yet worked up even an ounce of the courage or confidence it took to post his writing online.

Every page seemed better and better than before, and every author's note at the bottom seemed littered with endearing facts about the writer who described writing as a wonder filled hobby of her own while she chases her dream in fashion design. Just every word to describe clothing came together nicely and gave him more than just a visual to go with the idea of the outfit, it had a texture, it flowed really nicely depending on the outfit and other times just sat still over the characters.

Adrien was putty in her hands as far as word choice went. Every page made him fall so much more in love with her writing that he was positive that nothing else could enchant him more at the moment.

* * *

Or so he thought until he clicked on chapter six and was about a quarter of the way down the page when he stopped to admire a drawing of one of the outfits in superb detail, every pencil stroke and line of color seemed so flawless and spot on. Adrien wanted to run his hands down the fabric and just feel it beneath his fingers, test how it felt, compare it to the words that still made him stop short in awe and wonder.

He wanted to try on the outfit even though it was a dress for one of the main characters, just to feel how it felt on him, how it moved around him. Adrien wanted to say that it was the model in him, all of that practice, and being around clothing so much that made him love how it fit sometimes, but he knew without even a speckle of a doubt that it was the writer's words that made him wish that he could wear her designs, float in dresses, fall in love with slacks with straight lines that could keep any guy grounded.

Adrien was smitten, and he wasn't quite sure how to explain to anyone that when he said he was 'in love' that it was with the writing of a story, the painstaking hours spent on it, the tender care to draw the designs, and the passion to keep on seeing the story through and never letting it grow old or vacant.

He was in love, but it wasn't quite with a person nor the idea of a person framed and put on a pedestal, but rather with the soul of a writer that poured her words out on the page and her passion in a drawing that was just as captivating as her words.

'If a picture could paint a thousand words,' Adrien was positive that in her case, a novel could tell a thousand different stories and have all of them be just as beautiful and breathtaking to look upon, like thousands of beautiful movies playing at once inside his head.

If only he was creative enough to be just like her one day or if he may be had a chance to say the words that stuck to his tongue and so refused to come out.

* * *

'Hey, I just wanted to say that your writing is incredible.' Adrien paused after he'd hit send, insecurity finding him. Those words weren't nearly enough to convey his thoughts, but he didn't feel like enough of a writer to put it all in words and convey just everything.

The fact that he'd reviewed chapter twenty out of eighty five and counting probably shown that he was only just beginning to get wrapped up in everything 'The Masked Designer' wrote.

Every word meant something a little above and beyond the others, meant something just a little bit more extra, and Adrien was still so incredibly in love with her writing.

'Oh, thank you, Feline Chaton. It's so incredible for you to feel that way. I'm just a regular writer.' The Masked Designer replied, and Adrien's heart both broke and leapt for incredible joy.

'It's true that your writing is so amazing, but you're welcome anyway.' Adrien wondered how she had such mastery over language when all that he could seem to write was absolute gibberish as far as coherent thought seemed to go.

'Do you write?' That whole question shook his world, and before he could think about it, his fingers were flying on the keyboard, typing a quick though lengthy response. He suddenly felt like the floodgates were opened and instead of tears coming out, words poured forth from his fingers. He suddenly had so much to say especially to the sweet fanfiction writer online that had somehow caught his eye with an AU that she somehow both perfected and made her own.

Adrien was in love with it from every word to every sentence to every page.

* * *

He couldn't say quite what the joy was that lit up his heart when he heard his E-Mail ding with a new message nor could he explain quite why he was so excited to see her responses. She was so kind, humble, and down to earth and Adrien still didn't know how that could be.

The Masked Designer writes for fun, and yet somewhere in the pages, you can get lost as if she'd written a published novel, characters springing to life, world built so completely, and every level of emotion seemed to be caught up on those pages, leaving Adrien's heart so smitten with words that he'd never known could be so magical.

If a writer was indeed magic, Adrien wanted to be just like that. It didn't matter just how long it took, but he wanted to write like she did, so freely, so passionately, and so beautifully. It was as if she'd given him just that push finally to chase down writing and commit himself to it in the way that he'd wanted to for so long, and he couldn't help the joy that clung to him or made him just so excited to put pen on paper or fingers to a keyboard and just write. Let the words flow from his fingers and fall madly in love with the worlds that he can make, try to chase down, and truly experience. Every breath could easily become just as romantic, just as free, just as beautiful as she described them.

* * *

'I can betaread for a while if you want me to. Don't worry. I'm sure that your writing is great.' The Masked Designer replied, 'Every writer needs a beginning somewhere, and I'll gladly help you find your beginning.'

It felt refreshing like finally stealing a breath of fresh air after so long without it, and Adrien couldn't help his joy nor his attachment to all that this was becoming and the motivation and inspiration that she'd suddenly lit up inside him like a sparkler or a firecracker, something chaotic and sometimes slightly wild if you really looked at it.

'I'd love you to, but fair warning, I'm not very good yet.' That 'yet' felt like an accomplishment as did every kind word that she'd sent his way from the start of the conversation.

'I'm sure you're great.' And that's when Adrien started sending stories her way as she critiqued certain points at times and yet they seemed just like gentle reminders of 'you can do this here' or 'you can do that here, but it's your story, and I kind of like it like that.'

The Masked Designer let him call her 'M' or 'Marinette' now as they messaged elsewhere to better go over everything, and Adrien still didn't think that his writing was worth her investment and yet he couldn't help how much he found himself smiling or just how happy he was. Every message reminded him that there was joy outside of his house and still further that he could have joy and make new friends from the quiet of his bedroom.

'Can I ever write like you do?' Adrien asked as he finally stared at the screen in awe and wonder. Her support had made him a stronger writer, a much stronger one, and have given him confidence as well as courage to finally post a few fanfics that he'd written. No AUs of his own yet, and nothing nearly as long or as stunning as hers or at least he didn't think that they were stunning.

'You already do.' Marinette paused, 'It's your own style, completely your own, and it's beautiful, Adrien. Don't worry about 'being' me in this case. I can find parts in your writing that remind me of my own or make me remember something that I've written, but I learned shortly after I started writing to appreciate other people's style, to not try to mold it to yours, but to help on the important stuff or let them know a bit more of what their style is. Your style will grow and flourish as you write more and more, and you never have to worry about it being good enough.'

'Are you sure?' Adrien couldn't imagine his style growing with every story, and yet he'd seen quite a bit of growth as far as his stories went, and he'd been stunned by them.

'Positive. Want to write together?' Marinette asked, 'Not cowrite, just write while the other one does too, and relax?'

The idea seemed different than what Adrien had expected, but may be there would be something to say about silence as they wrote at once, with the other one just a fingertip on the keyboard away from them. 'Sure.'

Adrien had loved all of her suggestions during this budding friendship, and he was already still falling in love with her writing and her kind heart while he slowly came to appreciate and love his own writing. Her constant presence and support as far as writing goes already went a long way.


	28. Gym

Gyms are a place for gatherings, but never quite the usual type of gatherings. Mothers tended to cluster the machines together, gossiping, as they tried to lose baby weight.

Body builders naturally gravitated towards the weights and sometimes if there was a group of them or more than one ended up at the gym, they talked loudly among themselves while they worked, and in the case of why Marc's here in particular, he needed something to do to take his mind off of everything.

Thoughts fell and thoughts bloomed, and while he was itching to take a pencil in hand and write them down, nothing dared to come to his mind or at least nothing that he could write while he tried to make his mind just shut up for once. Once you have a vivid and active imagination, sometimes it tended to hate stopping, just wanted to go, go, go.

Marc bit his lip and let his eyes close while his mind still couldn't settle down or decide what he should do for now. There was only so much a young writer could do when he'd never really been an athlete, he may remember some basic stretches from years ago when they were taught to him in general, but he doesn't remember a single way to use the machines or how to not crush himself if he so much as dared touch the bench press.

Marc had never found sports nearly as interesting as many people probably did, and muscles didn't ever stop him short in awe. He'd never wanted muscles and never found someone attractive just because they had muscles.

"Marc, is it?" He paused from his nervous, jittering thoughts and glanced up at a familiar face.

"Y-Yeah." Marc took the a deep, steadying breath, all the while hoping that the young athlete didn't think him too weird for either his awkwardness or him just being here.

"I'm Alix if you didn't know." She murmured, "You're Nath's writer, aren't you? He speaks highly of you. He's so excited." Alix smiled up at him, and it was like her words just fell over him like long forgotten comfort or a balm of sorts.

"I'm glad." Marc smiled, "He's fun to work with."

"Since you're here, have you seen the track yet? We can run and talk if you'd like." Alix set her workout bag down for a moment, and Marc wasn't sure if there was a polite way to say that while he needed to do something, he didn't really want to.

"I-I'm not very fast. You don't have to." He couldn't help it as his eyes lowered to the floor, avoiding confrontation was way better than following through with it.

"It will be fine. Not many people can beat me." Alix shrugged, "I'll run your pace, whatever you're comfortable with."

"You sure?" Marc asked her, figuring that may be if she didn't mind too much, running might be able to take his mind off of everything that was clamoring so absolutely for his attention.

"Yeah, besides how else will I get a chance to talk with Nath's newest friend." Alix smiled, "He really does like working on those comics with you, you know?"

"O-Okay." Marc took a breath as he caught up to Alix as she grabbed her bag and led him towards the track which happened to be upstairs, "I like working on them too."

"It's probably fun to do group projects like that." Alix paused before the track to drop her bag into a little cubby, "If it was me, I'd get so competitive that I'd just try to outdo the writer, and we'd both become way better from it." Alix shrugged, "I guess I'm not normally one to be in a group."

"How often do you come here?" Marc stammered out before he realized how that sounded and then shame hit him right in the face, leaving both of his cheeks pink, and an apology on his tongue.

"Nice one." Alix commented like it didn't matter much at all really, "As often as I can. Usually once or twice a week. I prefer skating, but I like a little variety in sports at times too."

"I'm sorry that came out all wrong." Marc stammered as soon as she stopped speaking, "I didn't mean to sound like I was flirting with you."  
"Oh, it's fine." Alix waved it away, "I know you didn't mean it, and besides, I didn't think of you for a second as someone that couldn't be a good friend of mine."

"Do your friends usually say stuff like that?" Marc felt embarrassed that he was even asking and yet he kind of did want to know how she could handle it so easily and so effortlessly.

"If they do, they don't mean it as flirting." Alix motioned him on to the track, "I don't date, and most people know that and don't even bother." She shrugged as if it was just an easy observation to speak about.

"Okay." Marc looked away, "I don't know if I'd want to date. I have crushes, but..." He sighed; it already felt like too much to share with her since they weren't even close yet, "Why don't you date if you don't mind me asking?"

"I've never been interested in dating or at least not all that that involves. May be one day, but I'd have to find someone that makes me want to risk it." She started walking the track and Marc fell in step right beside her.

"Okay." Marc muttered, "So you're Nathanael's best friend?"

"We like to think so. I've known him for years since he'd first found inspiration in the Louvre, and we just hit it off really well." Alix picked up the pace just a little, so Marc quickly followed, "I've known him for about as long as I've known Max and Kim. I've known Kim for ages."  
"So you were childhood friends?" Marc asked as if there was any doubt to be had from how Alix and Nathanael got along or acted near each or even how they spoke of the other one.

"Tried and true." Alix grinned up at him, all crooked and playful, "Always. We've been friends for so long now that I forget exactly when we met."

"Wow. I've always wanted a friend like that, one that has known me for so long, and is trying to be my friend forever." Marc stopped, "That sounded weird, right?"

"Some people say that about relationships too." Alix shrugged, "You ready to run?"

"Sure." Marc felt so slow on the track as he watched Alix acommodate him by just slowing down and staying evenly at pace with him.

"You do have close friends, right?" Alix asked, lowering her voice and naturally just speaking softer.

"I guess." Marc shrugged, feeling rather embarrassed, "I usually hang out with my family or Nathanael now." It felt kind of weird to admit like he was an outsider to some club that he should have joined so long ago.

"Aww." Alix sighed, "You need to get out more. I don't hang out super often with a lot of people, but I do go places more than you seem to. Come to the movies with Nath and I, Saturday, if you can. It might do you some good to get out a bit more."

"But I wouldn't want to interrupt you, two, hanging out." Marc protested.

"You can go. Nath won't mind. He's like another brother to me. He'll appreciate the extra company anyway." Alix insisted with a smile, "How fast can you sprint?"

"I don't know. Nathanael isn't here to say one way or the other." Marc hesitated, "I don't know how fast I can sprint."

"Okay, race me." Alix sprinted off, and Marc struggled to pass other people on the track, some walking or doing light jogs like they'd been before, others racing off trying to beat their old times. It felt freeing as everything that seemed to hold him back for so long blew away with the air and he felt like running forever, thrilling over exactly how fast he seemed compared to some runners.

Finally, he caught up to Alix, doubling over in breathlessness, and she smiled down at him, "Not too bad. Your endurance could use some work, but you're pretty fast when you try. Do you feel better?"

He paused as he looked up at her, "Better?"

"From earlier. When I first saw you, I was worried about you." Alix glanced over at him, "There's not much that a good workout can't fix unless you actually need to talk it out or if you can't workout for whatever reason." She pouted, distractedly, "That would suck actually."

"I do feel a bit better. So it's okay to like someone and not want to date them for certain reasons?" Marc hesitated, but Alix's support and the fact that she'd actually noticed that he'd felt more like breaking down than working out gave him the shaky confidence to actually ask her that.

"It's fine. If it's you, don't worry about whatever else." Alix smiled, "I don't really want to date, so I'm not going to. If you don't want to date someone even if you like them, it's okay. Just don't push yourself, the only competition for you is what we just did."

"Okay." Marc murmured, "I'm just not sure anymore who I am."

"Just wait then. You'll figure it out eventually. Kim figured himself out despite how much it pains me to say it, and Nath took some time to figure his own heart out. Max though was the one to tell me to not become someone else. Markov's his favorite example of someone who stays 'true to themselves.'" Alix seemed so much more confident than Marc felt, and he found himself kind of stunned under the wake of her casual confidence that didn't seem too doubtful.

"Markov?" Marc asked as he tried to think of some kid in their class or his class that was named that and drew a million and one blanks.

"His robotic best friend." Alix explained easily, "Trust me, it's not as weird as it sounds. If Markov can be true to himself, I can to."

"O-Okay..?" Marc figured that he'd trust her at least this once. The advice felt right though the source of it had been nothing like he'd expected today when he went to the gym and had found himself feeling so lost within himself and unsure of which way to turn.

"So want to meet back over here for another race in a few days?" Alix asked.

"You'd still beat me." Marc pointed out though he didn't really mind that she'd won their mini race especially since she'd started sprinting first.

"It's about letting those thoughts go." Alix told him, leaning against his side, "Believe it or not, I've been there, not for the same reasons, but I've doubted and not trusted my own self before too. Max and Markov and Nathanael and even Kim in a way helped, but I do find it best to chase my problems away with skates or running or just a good, old fashioned workout. If you want me to show you how the machines work, I can."

"I can't imagine that." Alix seemed so put together, but Marc was sure that everyone didn't see how much he broke when he seemed just like the quiet, usually probably decently off emotionally kid.

"You can't, but it doesn't change the fact that we all go through it at some point. Trust me, whoever you like has been just as torn apart as you at some point and had to piece together who they are somehow." Alix smiled.

"Okay, I'll try to remember that." Marc paused, "You seem so wise."

"I know smart people. They might have rubbed off on me a little. Most of my advice comes from either where I've been or the smart people that I mentioned." Alix shrugged, "I'm not a wise person or not as wise as people like Max or my dad or my brother are."

Marc found that hard to believe, but he couldn't help his smile as he left the gym that day for the first time, wanting to go right back and sprinted as soon as he could. Alix had been the friend that he'd never realized he needed until she came by when he needed someone the most.


	29. Time Travel

'There are things you only learn by living through them.' The words bounced and shook the walls of all of her thoughts, and she couldn't help as she looked out and watched the sunrise and just remembered everything that had caught her mind and left her feeling like she was floating in one of The Bubbler's bubbles.

Rose sighed; there'd been something so sophisticated about her if that was even the word for it, something mature about her, and yet something just a hint broken about her. She dreaded the day when she'd become that broken. Seeing your future self could sure put a damper on things just like it can make you so excited for your future.

'Just, how do you compare to that experience?' Rose felt just a tad unsure about her future, just how to achieve it, and just how to get through it. If there was a side of her that was so broken, something had to have happened to leave her like that.

Rose couldn't help but sit down and remember that strange woman, some future version of herself and yet had felt foreign enough that it seemed weirder than she could ever imagine that that woman could very well be her.

* * *

"Rose?" A woman's voice had murmured, half softened just by the years that had flown by

for her, the lifelines taught by the harder realities of life, "It's been so long." She smiled, and Rose was lost, somewhere in just looking at this woman.

The ring on her finger glittered in the sunlight, and she managed to stand pretty tall in this moment as if unsure of exactly where she stood in this time and not out of some obligation to perfect posture.

"Yes?" Her voice squeaked, especially as everyone's eyes seemed to turn towards them.

"I can't believe it." The woman smiled, "I'm you but older." Her gaze flickered around the group, "I need to have a talk with Marinette and Adrien anyway. I'll be right back."

It felt so surreal to watch her future self pause to talk to what had to be the future Adrien and Marinette over something important, like whatever led them here.

Rose bad never expected that an Akuma battle would ever lead to her discovering her future, may be Cat Noir's and Ladybug's, but hers? Why hers? It seemed so surreal as she watched her'self' walk off to speak to Adrien and Marinette over the Akuma battle and whatever had happened on their side of time.

* * *

Seeing your younger self and knowing that she's too young yet to be Hamlette, knowing that she hasn't felt the pain or insecurity that hits you when you're too slow to do nearly enough for Paris, for others. Sometimes you can't always be on time, but she refused to let it go, refused to stop trying to be the best superheroine of Paris as she could be.  
She's never been the sort to be a quitter even when people see her and don't quite see her hidden pools of strength. Today, though every little thing had changed her, made her stronger and tougher, made her more aware of her weaknesses, made her more determined to write her history as a good one.

Just seeing her younger self, knowing that she was unlikely to just be as aware of all of that without having lived through it, and so seeing her felt far too surreal, like a visit to her past that she wasn't quite ready for.

"So," Rose took a deep breath, glancing back over at her younger self, "Do you all want us to get the future superheroes to help us out? It shouldn't take too long. If you're not a superhero, I'd recommend you go take a nap or something. Try to avoid the fight. We don't want you getting hurt." She doubted that she could just vanish from a fight without feeling like she didn't do near enough, but she at least had a vague excuse for not hiding, 'getting the superheroes' anyway.

"You'll be fine getting them?" Her younger self asked her, and Rose just wanted to pull her close and comfort her.

"Yeah, don't worry about it. We're tougher than we look." Rose told her gladly and confidently.

* * *

Ladybug, Cat Noir, and Rena Rouge were joined by their future selves and a superheroine named Hamlette or at least that's what she'd introduced herself as. Hamlette wore a light pink dress with some bright pink leggings that shone in the Parisian sunlight and two, cute and small pig ears overtop her head.

"So you need to get that thing right there." She pointed to some type of gun like object attached to the Akuma's belt, "It's the Akumatized item or so Cat Noir and Ladybug told me. They were in your shoes once after all." Hamlette like Rose had an air of just adjusting to the time travel and considering it as much more unchangeable and natural than anyone else seemed to.

As easy as it was to spot the Akumatized object with a bit of extra help, it wasn't nearly as easy to separate the Akuma from their beloved gun that usually sent people back in time though not always.

"Try Cataclysm." Hamlette suggested with a gentle smile.

"No, don't." Future Cat Noir called out too late before he was quick on his feet and pulling his younger self out of the crossfire of the now much angrier Akuma in a crater as Cat Noir had already Cataclysmed the ground beneath the Akuma's feet.

As Cat Noir's ring beeped, calling out a five minute warning before he detransformed, his future self asked him an important question, "They don't know your secret identity yet, right?"

"Y-Yeah." He answered, still handling what that question meant in his mind as if two plus two just couldn't equal four.

"Then come with me." He gestured his younger self to follow him as they took off to a much better hiding place for 'their' secret identity to remain a secret.

* * *

When Rena Rouge's illusions confused the Akuma, making him feel like he was back in time, and nothing was working to bring him back to the present, Ladybug was able to grab the Akumatized object to break, pausing as she looked up at her older self. "Do you want to do this?"

When you're fighting crime with your future self, everything isn't always cut and dry, sometimes your own tasks could not be your present self's.

"No, you do." Ladybug told her, "You'll probably need to fix it anyway."

"Okay." And as the words needed to purify the Akuma butterfly and cleanse the area slowly sent their future selves disappearing.

Hamlette gave a little wave, being the only one of the four to actually give them some kind of goodbye as her skin appeared like those beside her to turn into a golden dust as it slowly vanished, leaving behind empy spots on the street where four people once stood.

It felt so unreal that as the Akuma flew away, Ladybug wasn't entirely sure if she'd been seeing things. Hamlette did seem rather familiar to her as a person despite never meeting her before today. The idea that they'd get another superhero partner so soon or rather before this Akuma kept bringing the time and space continuum and forcing them to help out their past selves.

Hamlette had seemed just so nice to everyone or as nice as a superhero could be fighting crime and trying to keep peace. Ladybug could have sworn that she knew someone like that and yet no name or face came to mind at all. She was probably imagining things; there was no way that she knew Hamlette's civilian identity in her civilian life anyway, and it was highly unlikely that she'd run across her well enough before to recognize her.

The idea that their 'newest' superhero partner was familiar at all to her quickly fled her mind as she moved on with what she had to do.


	30. Roommates

Sometimes you just didn't know your roommate before you moved in, and all that Marc knew about his roommate was that he was named 'Luka' and that he was an upperclassman though not by much. Marc wasn't entirely sure whether this would go well at all when he'd never really been in a situation to have any roommate in his life.

How does one get ready to live on campus for the first time ever or get used to not having your mom sleep in the room next door? Do you just get used to writing in a new place?

Marc felt just so unsure of himself, a trait that he'd done his best to leave behind back before he finished his last school year before university, and yet he still had moments of doubt or fear or worry, and he felt kind of helpless to avoiding them as he dragged his suitcase after him, only have to pause to pick it up when the steps got in his way.

He felt like he was both carrying way too much and not enough. How much do you even pack when you're leaving your home for some place new for at least a year? Do you take everything that matters or half of it?  
Marc just wondered if this got easier the more often he did this or if this would prove to be too much before he just transferred schools to one in Paris and get to spend his time in the familiar and not the new. Sometimes new could be a good thing, but he still worried that he might be stepping into a landmine of choices that he wouldn't like at all.

Finally, he found the right building, but finding his dorm proved to be way more difficult as he felt himself asking twenty questions to the receptionist and anyone that he could find until forty five minutes later, he walked up to his room door, realized that it was unlocked after about twenty seconds of fumbling around with the key, and walked into a room that was half decorated already.

"Oh, hi." Was a half distracted reply from his roommate who was currently organizing guitar picks and setting his guitar down to strum a few notes.

"Hi." Marc muttered, just hoping that somehow they'd have something in common even if it was just the fact that they were both creative minded to make things much easier on him. His roommate hadn't at all been mean, so Marc still had hope that this roommate situation would pan out extremely well.

* * *

Luka was a bit of a night owl though he never left to get drunk or anything, just strummed his guitar sometimes late into the night if he didn't have a lot of work for classes to get done. Sometimes, being a music major as he was, he needed to actually practice or play his guitar for class.

Marc hadn't realized until he'd started humming one of the songs to stay awake on his way to an early morning class that he'd actually really enjoyed the impromptu guitar playing that seemed to stick with his roommate like glue. The music wasn't the kind that Marc was particularly used to, being a little more like rock music or alternative than the softer songs that Marc tended to prefer.

He'd discovered just the other day that not only did his roommate play guitar but he had a slightly deep voice when it came to singing, and that Marc could listen to it forever, just to hear the way that he sung certain songs. None of them seemed too hard to understand, and Marc was looking forward to whatever song that his 'night owl' roommate will play today.

* * *

Slowly, Marc was beginning to feel settled as his early morning classes got easier to wake up and prepare for. It had just been a matter of adjustment as he'd already been a morning person or at least more of a morning person than a night owl anyway.

He'd discovered a certain joy to falling asleep to an actual guitar being played on the bed next to his, and Marc found himself getting more and more curious about his roommate, who he still only knew so much about.

"So what's your favorite song to play?" Marc asked as he glanced over to Luka who paused strumming an 'original' or at least Marc was pretty sure it was though he couldn't say completely for sure.

"It depends." Luka answered, "There's a lot of songs that I like and a lot that I like to play. I do enjoy playing any song of my own as there's just something different about it." It was magical without that being even the right word. It felt like finally bringing a song to life and giving someone their first chance at hearing it right from the source. Nothing was quite like it.

"Have I heard some of your songs yet?" Marc asked softly, kind of nervous to figure out whether he'd been right or wrong over thinking that the latest song was a 'Luka Original.'

"You have heard a little of them." Luka shrugged, "It depends on if you were paying attention to them. You'd be here all day if I played all of them in a row for you to hear."

"I'm here pretty much all day anyway." Marc shrugged.

"You have earlier classes than I do." Luka pointed out, still smiling, "I'll play a few for you anyway."

Marc discovered that listening to songs straight from the writer of them felt far different than just listening to a cover or looking up an artist online. He still wasn't sure if their were words for it though it brought them closer as two roommates fast becoming friends.

* * *

Friendship was a lot different when you lived with your friend, were there before they woke up, or after they fell asleep. It meant that you had to learn to deal with both their best qualities and their worst.

Luka wasn't a bad roommate by any means, but whenever they did fight over something due to being around each other so much, Marc became a boiling pot of anger that he made sure to tap down after the arguments.

He'd always been slow to forgive even after he'd come to know better. And sometimes, Luka wasn't as organized as Marc tried to be though Luka only slipped up on organization whenever he was busy.

"So did you do well on that test?" Luka strummed a few notes on his guitar.

"I don't know. I barely understood the reading from before though I understood all that the professor went over in class, just I'm feeling ready for break already." Marc dropped on to his bed, "I'm tired, and sometimes I don't really have the time to write like I want to."

"Just relax and write then like right now." Luka shrugged, "It will get easier to balance later."

"I never see you leave." Marc spoke up glumly, "Are you sure you're in classes?"

"I have early afternoon ones while you're still in class and then night classes usually after you've fallen asleep. It's just how this semester has worked out." Luka shrugged, "You'll see me leave eventually. I'm not in here all day."

"Okay." Marc was worried that it would end in an argument that he simply did not have the energy for, so he didn't add much and just let the conversation drop.

"You look tired." Luka muttered, "Take a nap and try to relax." He strummed some notes and stopped focusing on Marc to play a song and sing along to it, somehow managing to tire Marc out more and leaving him falling asleep to some softer than usual rock song.

Having a roommate was a lot like being thrust into a new kind of life, new rules, new things to figure out along the way, but in Marc's experience at least you got a new friend who would come to know you in a way that few friends ever would. A friend that would come to understand and know your morning routine, and in part, you learn his.

Marc was just grateful that his roommate was Luka, who was both so different than anyone Marc had ever met and someone that he could relate to. Friendships sometimes may seem odd, but they never were something that the people didn't understand and know going through it.


	31. Dealer's Choice

Sometimes trust was particularly hard to give out to those that you knew didn't mean you harm, but to attempt it meant more than enough. As she lay there, letting her teeth be taken care of, she didn't pause to think of the mistakes that some of the staff had made on her appointments before, and let her mind focus on trust, trusting the nurse currently running the checkup and cleaning her teeth.

Marinette's eyes were mostly closed though she'd never quite expected once her friendly nurse headed out to get the dentist's attention manage the 'official' checkup, go over everything, and make sure that her teeth really were fine. She never expected the dentist to be a face that she'd recognized from years ago, from flipping through magazines with longing to just become a fashion designer.

Adrien Agreste was her doctor, and she couldn't be more surprised. The idea that the boy that always seemed so passionate about science, so eager to help others, had become the man helping people out in an everyday kind of way stunned her. While she couldn't imagine Adrien risking his life or even dying trying to save people for a living, dentistry still hadn't been what she expected.

There was almost something mundane about the ordinary, about seeing someone living their life so quietly more than whatever life seemed. As a dentist, Adrien was happy and excited and knew what he was doing, most importantly, and Marinette couldn't help the smile on her face as he wished her a good day before finding his way towards another patient that needed him.

* * *

Adrien loved his job though it was something that his father had never expected for him. He loved helping people through attentiveness, through focusing on the little things that they needed that once provided made things just so much better for them. Fixing a cavity could mean protecting someone from losing a tooth later on. Explaining the ins and outs of gum disease could help someone be more cautious about how they treated their mouth.

One little part of a mouth could cause so much pain and effectively change their life for the worst if not properly treated or avoided. Adrien loved being there for his patients, trying to encourage them and get them to truly live their lives beyond whatever had held them back before.

He loved every last detail except how exhausting it became after balancing a whole day taking care of patients, making sure that they'd be fine, and jumping into to treat them as much as possible, to talk to them, and try to be the best dentist that they ever had.

Dentistry could be exhausting even though he'd worked so hard for so long to get here and had been working as a dentist for a year or two now even though it didn't feel nearly as long as that was and yet felt far too long as everyday became a little more ordinary despite every difference that he loved and enjoyed.

Today though, he was exhausted from working all Friday as a dentist and trying to balance work between patients that sometimes hated the dentist's office to ones that found it an even neutral and others that seemed to like it well enough. They never flinched, just seemed caught up in something in their thoughts that Adrien doubted that he could pull them out of that thought by asking them questions.

"Your turn to deal." Chloe muttered, and Adrien came back to earth as he grabbed the deck of cards, freshly shuffled and passed them out one at a time. A great game of 'Bull' might be just what he needed to relax his mind, to give himself something else to focus on, and to provide that distraction that willingly appears whenever he invited his frineds over to play cards and just let loose after a hard day at work.

As the game rolled on, catching Nino only half the times when he lied and calling Chloe out only three times, two of which she'd lied, the other one, she'd definitely put down two fours. Adrien had thought that just may be he'd catch her in one though he may have tiredly read an Ace upside down as a four.

Sabrina, unsurprisingly won, as she tended to be way better than them at card games usually. She wasn't perfect at them, and they had beat her before plenty of times. Sabrina had an absolutely incredible poker face and none of the other three could read it as well as they wished they could.

"Slap Jack?" Chloe suggested, already eager for a change of pace.

"Egyptian Rat Screw." Nino butted in instead.

"Why not just another round of Bull?" Sabrina suggested with a smile to which she got two equally shocked looks.

"Sabrina, you won the two out of three games that we just played at Bull. Give us a chance as we do want to destroy you." Chloe answered, going from soft and chiding to some kind of regular bored tone as if it stopped being relevant halfway through.

Sabrina shook her head as she smiled and put in a vote for Nino's suggestion as Adrien took the cards to shuffle them. Any day with friends after a very long day at work felt incredible as he relaxed and joked among them, getting lost in the competitiveness of card games.

* * *

Monday rolled around before Adrien knew it and with that came an exciting day at work which somehow involved three wisdom teeth removals. Each one from about high school aged teenagers and each one would likely have quite a story to tell their children from how they reacted to the sedative.

Their parents would likely take fun videos, and tell their children about this for years to come. Adrien smiled; families could be so playful and closeknit, and Adrien loved imagining that all of the families that walked through the door to his office were like that. It's the kind of family that he's wanted for ages, and the kind that he intends to have one day.

Adrien loves the idea of happy families, of strong friendships, of just about anyone that comes through that door. Everyone of them had a life outside of the dentist's office, and Adrien just hoped that what he did provided just a little bit more security and joy in their days that even if they weren't fans of dentists that may be they'd just be glad to be healthy, to have their checkup, or a filling or a crown or whatever else that they came here for.

Adrien smiled as one of his familiar patients came in; he'd seen her while passing through and just couldn't wait to talk with her as he checked up on her teeth.


End file.
